The Pureblood Prince
by mystfatale
Summary: All families have their tales to tell...
1. Chapter 1

**The Pureblood Prince**

**By AuroraSinistra87.**

**Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Zilch belong to me.  
**

_CHAPTER I: Silence_

It had been raining for weeks, relentless and unashamed of how miserable it seemed to make the world. Looking out the window you saw cars practically swimming down the street, and a feeling of instant schadenfreude filled your mind as you watched all the people scattering around desperately clinging onto their umbrellas and cursing as they stepped off the curb into a lagoon of dirty rain water.

The Snape family's small and decrepit townhouse nevertheless stood steadfast in such times. Though Tobias Snape was usually one of those millions of Muggle Englishmen coming through the door cursing about the insignificant matter of 'how bloody wet it bloody was'. Today was no different; as his son Severus sat cross-legged on his bed flipping through a rather large textbook coated with charts and timelines regarding past developments in the Dark Arts, he had the severe ill-fate of glancing out of his window which overlooked the street to see his father angrily shaking his right leg, as if any effort on his part would completely rid himself of his now saturated trouser leg. Severus held his stare for a few more seconds before faintly rolling his eyes and returning to his book.

Severus loathed his father. Loathed him with every fibre of his being. He could not remember a particular time where this hatred had been even slightly lifted. The hate had probably manifested itself to stronger levels because, as vile and drunk and violent as the man was, Severus could not bring himself to extract any sort of magical revenge on him. This was by no means his own choice (given the choice Severus would have cursed the man to a thousand pieces by now), but rather the choice he had to make if both he and his mother were to have any sort of amity. For reasons which Severus would never understand for the rest of his days, his mother would never hear a single bad word against her husband - though he brutally mistreated her almost every day. Severus winced slightly as he heard the door downstairs slam shut and the sound of keys rustling and clinking about.

"Hullo!" came the insufferable voice from downstairs.

Severus jumped up silently from his bed, clasped the doorknob and softly shut his bedroom door. He hoped by the somewhat loud and agreeable greeting that his father was a tad less than incensed today. He knew that his mother had just about had enough of her quota for tolerance for this week; yesterday he had found her weeping on the kitchen floor only to look up at him and pathetically choke, "oh Severus, I love you so much, you know that don't you… you do, don't you?" – the location often changed, but the weeping and the declarations never did.

"Anyone hoooome? Eileen?"

Most times she would break down in the bathroom. It was the only room in the house with a lock attached. Severus hissed as he thought of his mother's stupidity, she was a witch for Merlin's sake – he was a wizard. She knew Severus could break the lock with ease as he had done on many occasions. But he had only done so when the wailing behind the door stopped – for knowing his mother was manically depressed, the worst images came to his mind whenever he was subjected to silence rather than her crying.

Muffled chatter from downstairs; Severus heard his mothers voice and instinctually switched on to red alert though he kept absentmindedly flicking through his textbook.

It was both a pleasure and a vexation to be going back to Hogwarts for his Seventh year next month. Severus was utterly torn not only between leaving his mother to her own devices against his father and the chance to get away from it, but he was also torn between home and getting the bejesus beaten out of him at school. Any way he thought about it, it was a grim prospect – but that was also what he said about coming back home, therefore he tried not to dwell on either prospect. But this was his last year at Hogwarts, and Tobias would soon get what was coming to him, Severus had no doubts about this, if he was to leave his mothers home he'd make damn sure that monster left with him.

Severus let his book drop onto the floor as he stretched out on his bed (three times too small for his growing body) and stared resolutely at the fractured and grimy ceiling, wondering about what was happening downstairs. He felt his eyelids grow heavy and soon drifted off from his unpleasant meditations.

_Knock, knock, knock._

Severus turned over in a groggy state, ignoring the knock as he drew his now dead hand from underneath his head.

_Knock, knock._

"Oh piss off, you bastard," Severus mumbled into pillow before he heard Eileen's almost inaudible voice.

"Severus? Can I-"

"Yes, mother" he replied loudly, sitting up. The door creaked open and the sallow-skinned, sticklike woman entered.

"Oh, I'm sorry to wake you darling, I didn't know-"

"It's fine, it's fine" Severus quickly reassured her. He wished the woman would grow a backbone sometimes. He also wished she would cease using those shallow 'dear' and 'darling' words; he knew when she used them, she did not mean it. The years had slowly corrupted her personality – not that he should blame _her_ for that. "Where is he?" he said, hoping to sound unconcerned. Eileen opened her mouth, but paused for a few seconds.

"Out."

"Ah. The pub."

"… Possibly, yes."

Severus shook his head in amazement. She never used to be this way. She used to stick up for herself; she used to be a strong woman. Now she was nothing but a weak depressive pushover, and just the sight of her made him sick to his stomach. Eileen made her way over to him and sat on the end of his bed, he moved his feet to allow her.

"You know, Severus, I wast thinking that… you should let your father drive you to Diagon alley next week."

Severus frowned.

"Why on earth would you even say such a thing? He has said nothing about the Wizarding world since… well, he hasn't at all has he?"

"That's what I mean, darli-"

"You can stop using those so-called affectionate words, mother. At most they are half-intended when you make them sound so obligatory." He almost regretted using such harsh tones with her; the bags under her eyes seemed to darken. Of course that was just his imagination…

"And you can call me 'mum', Severus, for Merlin's sake, am I such a formality to you?"

Severus sighed. "No, mum" - he did it for her much more than himself. "Anyway, about father?"

"I want him to be more involved-"

"MORE INVOLVED?" Severus yelled in such a loud and shocked manner that Eileen winced at his actions. "Mum!" he formed his hands into claws and held them out in front of her, "are you_ clinically insane_? That's the LAST thing we want to do! I just- I-" _Oh fan-bloody-tastic. She is crying again._

Eileen was sobbing into her hands, her back shaking from all the violent weeping.

"I don't- I don't know Sev…erus" she croaked between sobs. Severus rubbed his mouth with his hand, contemplating on what to do. "He.. he told me he'd think about and I- I- oh, I don't know. I love you, you know that? I love you so…"

"Yes, mum" Severus said quietly. He was awfully lacking in the sympathy department but was trying his best. "I know. You tell me this all the time when you're upset, you don't have to, I told you I know." Of course he was lying.

Eileen vigorously wiped her wet face and forced a painful looking smile. "Look at me, sitting here crying" she strained a laugh as well, which Severus thought was rather un-characteristically spirited of her, "I should let you get along with... well… anything but comforting your insane mother, right." Severus gave her a weak smile. It was the least he could do.

"If father wants to take me to Diagon Alley, let him. I don't really care" but he couldn't help but scowl. Thankfully Eileen didn't notice. She kissed his forehead and he cringed. Every affectionate moment she showed him was so excruciatingly false and cold that he considered it a form of torture.

"Thank you, darling – uh - _Severus_." She corrected herself as she hopped off the bed and shot him a tired looking smile before exiting. Severus watched her descend down their spiral staircase with much anxiety. He felt a lot of things right now, but feeling like her son, like a person she was meant to take care of and not the other way around, was not one of them. He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands around his grey bed sheets. He could not believe he had just agreed to take his disgusting excuse for a father around Diagon Alley to go shopping for Hogwarts robes and broomsticks and potions and everything Tobias despised. He knew he would be in for a beating when they both returned; how on earth could his mother be so profoundly oblivious to this?

If there were two things he wanted to keep as far away from each other as possible – it was Tobias Snape and the Wizarding world: a world in which he was not welcome.

Severus snarled and flushed red with anger. His already broken mirror split right down the middle and fell off the wall.

~*~


	2. Not Your Average Idiot

**Title: The Pureblood Prince.**

**Warnings: Swearing.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own any of these characters. J.K. Rowling got there before me.**

CHAPTER II: _Not Your Average Idiot._

He had no idea how on earth she had managed to persuade him, not to mention the overshadowing issue of _why_ - but to Severus's great disgust, Tobias had stomped up to his room early that morning, thrown open the door and violently kicked the foot of his bed; and when Severus had poked his head out of the covers and pried open his eyes with begrudging effort, he bellowed at him: "get up. We're going out."

"Ungh."

The shifting of springs. Another kick.

Furiously blinking the sleep from his eyes, Severus looked over his shoulder in time to see a cloud of black flying towards him and strike him directly in the face. It took him a few moments to realise that Tobias had hurled his coat at his head. Pulling the atrociously old and smelly Muggle item away from him, Severus rubbed his face viciously to rid himself of any confusion over dream and reality. This was soon forgone as his father swiftly placed his mouth directly in contact with Severus's right ear and shrieked.

"DOWNSTAIRS. NOW."

Severus has inwardly jumped out of his skin but gave Tobias no satisfaction in that knowledge. The door slammed with such force that the windows shook. Severus was surprised he had any windows at all. He clenched his teeth, closed his eyes shut for a moment to calm himself, thought of his mother downstairs all alone, and willed himself to get dressed and pull on the ugly coat that reeked of cigarette smoke. As he appeared on the landing he suddenly remembered the sight that must have met Tobias's eyes when he entered his son's room… Hogwarts textbooks… textbooks… it wouldn't be the first time Tobias had ripped one of 'those' books to shreds; he usually locked them in his Hogwarts chest, of course, but he had been studying into the early hours of the morning last night…

Without a second thought, Severus sprinted back across the landing to his bedroom with superlative speed. He fell to his knees and scavenged around like a madman before he hooked his hand around it. He felt his muscles relax slightly. It was all right. He hadn't touched his Potions book, as long as he hadn't touched-

"SEVERUS, I'M GETTING CROSS!"

Severus couldn't help but snort.

"And what does _your_ father do, Severus?" he mumbled under his breath derisively as he quickly moved around his room, hiding his books out of sight and placing the Advanced Potions book into the folds of his coat, "oh, he invents blatant euphemisms for a living, ma'am…"

It was still lightly drizzling as the run-down car aggressively budged down the road. Tobias was being completely obnoxious, as usual, and every sound that came out of his mouth made Severus grimace and turn his head violently in the opposite direction, to instead stare out of the window at each streetlamp that whizzed by. Tobias had turned on the radio and started tapping the steering wheel out of time with the music.

Severus never listened to Muggle music; Tobias often stated that it was one of the (many) reasons why Severus did not bring friends around on the holidays – he would then correct himself, stating "well, if you_ had_ friends…" as if he knew anything at all about his school life whatsoever, as if his son were just some common Muggle like himself. Oh how different things would have been if he had been a Muggle. Severus only had a few broken memories of his life before he knew of magic – and they all included a much happier Tobias.

"Where was mother this morning?" Severus stated rather loudly as to force Tobias to turn down the nauseating pop song crackling from the speakers, one of which had it's covering hanging by a single wire. Tobias didn't touch the volume. He simply shrugged and muttered a word Severus couldn't comprehend over the noise.

Severus stared resolutely at a red traffic light, feeling a slight headache coming on and trying to block out an image of a locked bathroom door. After a few seconds of shifting around in his seat and clenching his fists he reached over and turned the volume to an almost inaudible level.

"Excuse me!" his father snapped viciously.

"I have a headache."

"You're a bloody Nancy, that's why," Tobias spat back. "If you stopped locking yourself in your dark room all day like a hermit: reading and sulking and God knows what you do in there-"

"Where did you say mum was?" Severus interrupted.

"-haps then you'd stop whining about aches and pains and stop being such a fucking pansy about it. What?"

"Where was mum this morning?"

"Christ's sake, boy, she's in bed!" Tobias yelled before turning the radio back up to full-volume again and then yelling ever louder, "she's not feeling herself today. I hope you bloody apologise to her 'n all!"

"Me? Why?" Severus said this more out of second nature; he didn't really care. Tobias generally blamed everyone's problems on the basic fact that Severus existed at the same time as they did. But he could not suppress the concern that his mother hadn't been downstairs that morning; he knew his father well, and he knew that he generally used ailments as an excuse for his wife's refusal to come out of locked rooms. But it was not like her not to say good morning to her son before she did so.

Tobias was again trying and failing to hurl insults over the noise, but by that stage Severus had returned to following the streetlamps – distracting himself with thoughts of how many quills he would need to purchase this year.

To his great relief, Tobias did not accompany Severus further into London. With a nasty smirk on his face he stopped the car just outside the tube station and stated from here, Severus was to go alone and he was to make his way back home via the floo network. It was raining heavily at this stage and his father did not help this situation by scattering the contents of a puddle all over Severus's robes as he quickly made his exit – probably to the nearest pub. Drenched, cursing and secretly hoping that Tobias would crash the car in his drunken state on the way home, Severus glanced disdainfully at the station but decided to make his way out of the rain. Apparation would be too risky.

A few minutes later he found himself inside the Leaky Cauldron. Only this time it felt… odd. Every single time Severus had been to Diagon Alley his mother had always insisted that she accompany him. She did absolutely no practical help so him whatsoever, only fuss about his school robes getting to small and complaining about how much new ones would cost, as if Severus was growing taller just to spite her. Nevertheless, he could not deny that the lack of her petty fussing put him on edge. His defence mechanism had gone into overload.

Clutching his wand, he made his way cautiously into Knockturn Alley.

It had become almost second nature for Severus to make that 'wrong turn'. School books, school robes and your average idiots potion ingredients could wait; looking around to see if anyone had taken an interest in his presence – he took out his book and pulled out a small piece of parchment with a series of scribbled ingredients.

Bottles chinking at his side as he walked, Severus felt only slightly more satisfied has the ever-dreary task of shopping for your more average supplies awaited him. If his mother were here they would have had it done in the half the time. His mood had grown considerably darker – he could not put a finger on it, but uneasiness had etched itself into his pores. He had just stepped out of Flourish and Blotts when –

"Snivelly!"

Severus felt a small despondent breath escape his lips as he rolled his eyes behind half-closed eyelids. James Potter and Sirius Black stood a couple of yards away, near the opposing shop. Great…

"No mother this time, Snivelly?" Black perked up, moving slowly toward him as Severus' hand dived into the pocket containing his wand. "Finally saw sense, did she?"

"_Shut-up_ and get out of my way, Black" Severus spat, drawing out his wand and sneering to the high-heavens. Black and Potter returned the favour.

"You try anything like last year, Snivellus, and we'll only have the perfect excuse to get you expelled." Potter warned.

"They'll never know. It's your word against mine, Potter, and I'm of age now." Severus spat with a sharply raised eyebrow, "do you really think Slughorn or the Headmaster will believe a couple of dolts who have had detention assigned to them more than I've had hot dinners?"

Black chuckled. "_Hot dinners_? Snivellus? By the look of your mother I'd always imagined that you were fed virgins blood-"

BAM!

Beginning with Severus - a series of red and green sparks had erupted from all three boys wands, only broken by passer-by's physically restraining each of them. Severus was most adamant to break free of the restrain administered on him by one of the strangers.

"You wait… you - you just wait…" he snarled between viciously trying to release himself. Before he could get himself together, however, Black and Potter had headed around the corner – faint laughter following them closely.

The anger now pounding through every vein in his body did nothing to obstruct the blood now gushing from the deep wound across his throat. Turning away from the gazes of the obnoxiously nosy crowd that had now assembled, Severus pulled the collar of his coat up around his neck and stalked off in the deliberate opposite direction, muttering odious slurs.

Time was now more imperative than ever. He would make _sure_ that they would get their warranted comeuppance.

~*~


	3. Resting Here

**The Pureblood Prince.**

**By AuroraSinistra87**

**Warning: Domestic violence, swearing.  
**

CHAPTER III: Resting Here.

"_It's beautiful! You made this yourself, my darling?"_

"_All on my own!"_

_Eileen forced her reluctant toddler to give her a kiss. "Then Mummy's very proud of you! Where shall we put it?"_

_Severus looked around fervently before pointing at the mantelpiece. "Make sure it don't fall into flames!"_

"_Come on then, let's put it up" replied Eileen, gathering Severus up in her arms and placing him on her shoulders, "reach, reach!"_

"_Reach, reach!" Severus obediently repeated in her exact tone of voice before carefully placing the messy ornament in the middle of the mantelpiece. Eileen slowly stepped away before removing him from her shoulders and swinging him around to her front and tickling him. She dropped onto one of the run-down armchairs with Severus, who squirmed for a few moments, before beginning to doze off as she rocked him._

"_We should get you to bed, shouldn't we? It's very late." Eileen whispered into his ear._

"_Mmmm!" the boy mumbled in protest, half-asleep against his mother's chest by this stage. Eileen looked down upon him, marvelled in him, and stroked his thick head of black hair – he had her hair, her skin, her eyes… but he had his fathers face._

_The combination of rocking and stroking his hair soon put him right to sleep, as it did almost every night when she curled up with him. The evenings had always been 'their time'._

_She laid him gently down inside his crib, and with one backward glance at the door – she took her ebony wand from inside one of the wardrobes and muttered an incantation. Thousands of stars abruptly littered themselves against the cracked walls of the nursery._

"_You're greater than all this, my darling; no matter what Daddy says, you're going to find out why" she whispered, slowly moving towards her son and placing her lips gently on his forehead. "Mummy loves you more than anything in the world..."_

_A door slammed from downstairs._

_The worst was yet to come._

* * *

"Severus?! What in Merlin's-"

"_Eileen_…" Tobias warned over his afternoon paper.

"What happened to you?" Eileen continued, as she swiftly crossed the room to examine her son's neck – which was currently wrapped in bandages. Before Severus could say anything, she had tipped his head to one side and had slowly pulled away the bloody dressing; both herself and Severus winced simultaneously. Tobias calmly turned the page.

"Mum, stop it! _Leave it_."

_Stop pretending you care, mother, you're embarrassing yourself._

"Did someone curse you? Why didn't you - here…" she whipped out her wand.

Severus eyes flashed a desperate warning… _not here, not here, you stupid woman, I'll do it myself when he's out of the room_… but it made no difference. Tobias' hands came down upon the paper, crushing the Telegraph in one rapid stroke.

"Where did you -! What did I TELL you about that, Eileen?" he bellowed.

"Tobias," Eileen pleaded timidly, "it's obvious he was cursed, it won't heal the way Mugg-" she desperately searched for a word at Tobias' incensed expression, "- normal people's wounds do! He'll be scarred..."

She turned back to her son and raised her wand to his neck again. Severus gaped at her, wide-eyed in shock.

"You PUT that fucking thing away or I swear I'll-" he raised his hand, and though he was still sitting as he did so - Eileen moved slightly backwards towards her son, who instinctually swapped positions with her, willing her to stay confident.

Tobias gazed upon the two for a few seconds or more, before sniffing amusedly through his nose and lowering his hand.

"Severus, go to your room." He said with a nasty smile playing upon his features. He did not take his eyes off his wife. Severus felt a thin, cold hand come in contact with his own and clutch it tightly. All of a sudden, he felt fantastically empowered by her unusual defiance.

"No."

"_Now_."

"Did you not hear me the first time, _Tobias_?"

As he had expected, a rolled up newspaper hit him directly across the face. Eileen shrieked and pulled him backwards to safety. Severus had also stood his ground – not only to protect her this time, but to fight with her. Mentally begging his mother to keep up the shimmer of potency that she had shown earlier, he stepped towards his father once again.

"You give me cheek again, my lad, n' you will regret you'd ever been born." His face was now void of any colour, and his lips thin with seething rage.

"Mission accomplished! You must be _very_ proud." Severus spat back with equal vehemence.

Tobias began to splutter and shake with fury – but before he could utter a word or inflict another blow, a faint-hearted voice emerged behind his back.

"Severus, listen to your father, go to your room."

Whatever act of obscenity came from Tobias after that, Severus would not remember for the rest of his life. He slowly turned to face his mother, witnessed her sad shadow of a face… her weakness blazing up at him as she pleaded desperately with her watery eyes. He felt sick to his stomach at the distorted and… diluted woman she had become. It was beyond shame. He could not bear to look at her any longer.

Tobias was now holding the door open for him and sneering profusely.

"As you wish… mother." He felt her suppress a sob; a razor-sharp pain shot through his stomach.

As Severus reached the landing, he heard the unmistakable snapping of wood.

* * *

Taking out his _Advanced Potion Making_ book, he dwelled instead on fervently experimenting and scribbling notes. The ingredients from Knockturn Alley proved extremely effective, as Severus had predicted. He concentrated every fibre of his being onto the task the hand, before turning to healing the rest of his wound that he had been unable to finish by the time he had arrived home to his father. He was successful in drowning out the continuing clatter from downstairs, until the staircase creaked heavily and rapidly with the pressure of heavy feet.

The footsteps stopped, and the door to his fathers study slammed so raucously that the pane shook in protest. It was over. Severus glanced sordidly at the street below… study… "_I'll be in the fucking study_"… he mentally mocked. _There's no use attempting to act refined, father, you need a study like you need a hole in the head._

Severus grimaced. He _deserved_ a hole in the head.

A fly was busily rapping itself against the inside of the window; he shot it down with one jab of his wand.

Tobias had retired to his 'study' for the rest of the evening. Severus continued on with his experimenting, content with the fact the he was unlikely to charge around the house until tomorrow.

Coming back downstairs was always risky, but his grumbling stomach had coerced him into action. The Snape's kitchen could certainly rival Hogwarts feasts, indeed: a half full bottle of milk in the process of going off, cheese, a few cans of soup, perhaps some chicken if he was lucky. Christmas was the only meal that Severus could actually look forward to eating; however, the catch here was that he typically spent his Christmas's at Hogwarts – much to his mother's utterly fictitious objections.

As he entered the kitchen, he saw Eileen slumped in one of the chairs, clutching the two pieces of her broken wand. She had her arms folded over her knees and offered him a weak smile through her gaunt and hollow face, which he did not return. She returned to gazing into oblivion. He opened a few cupboards and had trouble with the Muggle stove as usual.

"Hole it down and twist, darling" Eileen said softly in her weakened state. She sounded wholly defeated. He twitched with anger and secretly wished she had told him to use his wand, but did as she said.

Waiting for the damn thing to heat up subsequently led to a ridiculously awkward moment. He did not turn around to look at her, even though he could feel her gazing at him.

He drummed his fingers against the kitchen table, leant backward and expelled a tired breath. Sick or not, Severus knew that Tobias had gone one step further with the restrictions he placed upon her. The only time she was ever allowed to immerse herself in their world was taking Severus to Diagon Alley and to see him off on the Hogwarts Express – and she didn't even do that last year. It was bad enough the drunk bastard had barred her from talking to any of her old friends from school, now he had made any sort of life she may have once enjoyed completely extinct all together – and she had allowed it. The worst part of all was that she allowed it!

She used to be a Prince.

Now she sat defeated and bruised. A Snape. And what for? For Tobias? No… for_ Severus_… for her son… and suddenly Tobias's abuse appeared a nonentity compared to the pain and guilt Severus felt; of seeing a once powerful and strong witch crumble into nothing, all for her child, and at the hands of her husband.

He hastily poured the contents of the soup into a chipped bowl and run the saucepan underneath the sink before skirting around the kitchen table and away from that god-awful site. He needed to get out of this decrepit house. It did nothing but drive him mad.

_One week of hell left…_

~*~


	4. Old Beginnings

**The Pureblood Prince**

**By AuroraSinistra87  
**

CHAPTER IV: Old Beginnings

It was a frustrating journey to Kings Cross…

Stuck, once again, next to the car window – only this time with the reassurance that he would not be repeating the drive any time soon – Severus managed to concentrate enough on the expectations of his final semester; not enough to completely drown out Tobias' obnoxious sing-alongs to the Muggle radio, but enough to get by.

Tobias had been quieter than normal this morning, and despite recently having her wand snapped in two and a son who was losing all faith in her – Eileen appeared… apprehensively joyful. It was an odd combination and one that Severus did not take quite the trusting shine to.

She purposely held him back that morning as Tobias was starting up the car. As Severus hastily gathered up his Hogwarts trunk and made to bustle out the door, she had pulled him back into a tight embrace. After a few moments resistance he merely stood awkwardly on the spot, not feeling the most comfortable person in the world. He wished the damned woman would let go - she had lost her opportunity years ago and they both knew it.

"Take care," she whispered as she firmly kissed the side of his head. "Don't let those - those _boys_ believe you're beneath them. You're a Prince, like me."

Severus frowned cynically. It may have been true on his part - but certainly not hers.

"Mmhhmm," he mumbled, his mouth squashed against his mothers shoulder. She heaved a great sigh and pulled back… her cheeks were wet.

"You're all grown up, Severus" Eileen said while grasping the lapels of his jacket and wiping the wet patch away. "Soon you'll be able to move away from here." Severus frowned; she appeared bizarrely happy about that. He felt rather affronted.

"I suppose" was all he could muster. The car horn beeped a few times from the driveway.

"Need any help with your trunk?"

"No, I'm fine!" Honestly! What on earth had gotten into the woman today? The whole 'benevolence façade' was beginning to vex him in a rather significant fashion. "If you're so concerned all of a sudden, why aren't you coming to see me off?" he spat out as his anger at her continued to rise.

Eileen tugged on his coat with a great heaving sigh.

"I… can't," and she had, once again, returned to her frail tones.

"No, you didn't really need to answer, mother. But if ever you have the urge to be honest, you could just admit that you aren't bothered with me", he grasped the handle of his trunk and began to heave the thing out of the front door. He sincerely hoped that this last semester would last forever.

Before she could get the chance to respond, the front door closed with a vociferous click.

* * *

The old shell of a car was heading towards London. It was a long, excruciatingly painful journey. It did not help that Tobias was singing, obnoxiously loud and very out of tune to the old Muggle radio; and, with only one speaker working, this made it doubly painful.

Severus momentarily frowned at his father.

"What you lookin' at me like that for?!" Tobias barked crossly, without taking his eyes off the road. "Honestly, you'd think you were from another world…"

_That's because I am, you utter moron_. Severus sat back, feeling a wave of pleasure wash over him at insulting his father without his knowledge. The impenetrable mind was a beautiful thing indeed.

"…anyway," he continued through the silence, music still blaring, "you thought about what you're going to do after… this thing? S'your last semester isn't it?" – he typically referred to Hogwarts as if it were some out-of-school hobby that Severus had picked up out of interest. Severus merely shrugged. He did not wish to go into a discussion about Wizarding careers with a complete Muggle dogmatist.

"I know you've inherited your mums love of science. Maybe you should go to university and study medicine. You know, proper science, n'all" he prompted. Severus knew he was only trying to get him to rise – and he wasn't going to give Tobias the satisfaction. He shrugged again, focusing all of his attention on the car vent in front of him.

"Yeah, mum could have been a wonderful scientist if she had bothered to get off her arse and try. Threw it all away on believing that she was a fucking Sorceress – look where that got her, eh? No. You'll be different, Severus, you'll be a proper rich doctor, a proper scientist - you could even be a surgeon! That'd show your mum how wrong she was! Dr. Snape, eh!"

Severus' hands were clenched so tightly that they began to burn.

Tobias didn't say another word until they reached Kings Cross. Severus, having had just about enough of Muggle culture to last him a lifetime, opened the door and dashed out before the car had even stopped. To his surprise, Tobias had followed him to the boot.

"You'll only scratch the car, Sev," he explained as he heaved the Hogwarts trunk out and let it fall to the ground; Severus cringed at the thought of all his delicate Potions equipment inside.

"Right," Tobias dusted off his hands as if finishing an entire days work. "You're on your own then, son. When you come back, we'll have a talk about university." He clapped him on his back, not without Severus subconsciously tensing up – inches from cursing the man into oblivion, before heading back around to the driver's side.

Severus breathed a short sigh of relief before dragging his trunk along the gravel and into the station. It was short in both meanings of the word… he soon felt a pang of guilt of managing to free himself from that place, even for just a while, as his mother was now left utterly to her own devices. He could almost feel her grief – in fact, it grew into such an overwhelming sensation in the pit of his stomach that he could have sworn he actually was. It was through pure force that he impelled himself to remember her insistent refusal to accompany him to Diagon Alley and King's Cross; the way she cowered and closed her eyes as the husband she kept proclaiming to love snapped her wand – the remaining connection to the only world she knew.

There was only one way of dealing with this… and that was to forget it. Soon, he would be completely independent of the both of them and that private hellhole of a house.

Platform 9 ¾ was always littered with families. Mothers and fathers kissing and waving their children goodbye – some with the odd tear or two running down their faces - as if they'd never see each other again. Severus knew virtually none of these people, but he hated all of them.

The Hogwarts Express had been on its way for a full twenty minutes before someone opened the carriage door. Severus didn't bother to look up from his book.

"There you are, Severus!"

"Regulus," he acknowledged, still deeply buried in _Advanced Arithmancy: for the Advanced Witch or Wizard_ - a subject for which he would be taking his NEWTs this last semester.

"Was wondering if you managed to even catch the train" Regulus said, jumping practically three feet in the air and coming down hard on the seat – greatly distracting Severus from his reading. "We're three compartments down, come on."

Severus had returned to his book after shooting an aggravated glance at Regulus's disruptions. "No thank you, Regulus, I'd prefer to be here as opposed to being forced to listen to everyone's meaningless holiday stories that no-one actually cares about-"

"I just pretend to care…"

"Why on earth would you bother doing such a thing?"

"Because then people have to listen to me."

There were so many things wrong with Regulus's rationalisation that Severus didn't even bother; he mentally rolled his eyes and flipped the page of his book, detailing intricate numerological charts. To his great annoyance, his silence did not deter the company.

"So how's life?" Regulus asked, seemingly quite innocuously. Severus shifted uneasily.

"Getting progressively more trying by the second" he mumbled in reply. Regulus did not seem to take the hint.

"Yeah," he continued, as if everything Severus was saying was simply not reaching his ears. "Had a rather good Christmas. Got a new broomstick from mother and father, top of the range, mind. Wish I could have seen the look on Sirius's face…"

"Wish?"

"Yeah," Regulus replied, leaning forward with a growing smirk on his face, "the little blood-traitor ran away – said he couldn't stand it any longer. Mother's burned him off the tapestry!"

"Indeed?" this was about the only interesting news to come from Regulus today. Severus allowed himself a moment's pleasure in imagining Sirius eating from a dustbin before turning back to Regulus. "What you mean your mother burned him off the tapestry? Set him on fire, did she?" he said with a slight smirk.

"The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black," Regulus said – puffing out his chest slightly and sounding ridiculously pompous. "All the very noble pure-blood families have tapestries, every time a Black is born they are added to the family tree – granted they aren't Squibs of course. If they turn against the family, mother burns their names off. My family spans back to the Middle Ages; we have no tolerance for blood traitors or anything other than pure Wizarding-"

"I get the picture," Severus shot back curtly. Snapping the book shut, he folded his arms and looked darkly out of the window at the rolling hills. So that was how all the Slytherins in his year knew he wasn't be a pureblood from the beginning; Snape would be the last surname to end up on a Wizarding family tapestry.

A part of him, though realising that he would always be a half-blood and the prospects of change were nada, wondered if his maternal grandparents possessed a Prince family tapestry. He would be able to ask them himself if he knew where they or any of the Prince's were… another ever so graciously accepting intervention on the Snape's part.

"Obviously can' rival a homeless Sirius, but whadda you get for Christmas?" Regulus muffled voice (stuffed with a chocolate frog, presumably) pierced his thoughts.

"A few things," Severus lied, suddenly turning towards him with a sullen look. "Are you quite done with this interrogation?"

"Alright, alright, be an arse," Regulus rolled his eyes and hopped up – finally leaving him in peace.

Seems Regulus has got himself a whole new social circle in his own year this time. Severus thought as he changed into his Slytherin robes. He didn't know whether to be pleased or angry about that… Regulus might have been two years younger, but he was Severus's one of three useful sources of outside information (the two others, Evan and Rodolphus, being in Severus's own year) and was about the only person Severus could stick for more than ten minutes. Twenty minutes with him, however, was most likely pushing it a bit…

He was pleased to find that he was not interrupted again for the rest of the night. Potter and Black seemed more interested in throwing cake at each other across the Gryffindor table while the teachers heads were turned (_Black obviously isn't reeling in depression about being left destitute... _Severus thought with great disappointment), and Regulus was busy talking to his fifth-year friends. Severus used the time to grab whatever food he could – he hadn't eaten anything since last night – and idly watched the sorting ceremony out of the corner of his eye.

As the feast began to draw to a close and the students were moving freely about the tables, talking to their friends - an ear-piercing shriek of laughter erupted from the Gryffindor table. A few Slytherins, Severus included, looked over to where Potter and his friends were sitting, but they quickly lost interest. Severus's eyes wandered back to his leftovers, catching the eye of a dark-haired Slytherin sixth year and her friend rolling their eyes at the Gryffindors, but before Severus could pick up his goblet to finish his drink, he was startled by a cheery voice behind him.

"Hullo there, Snape, my lad."

Severus snapped around to see Professor Slughorn, Head of Slytherin and the Potions Master, eyeing him with an inscrutable expression plastered across his face.

"Hello, sir" he answered as politely as he could. It wasn't as embarrassing as it could have been – everyone had begun to filter out of the Great Hall and were taking no notice.

Slughorn motioned for him to stand.

"Could I have a quick word?"

Well, that's a new record. A Ministry warning before the term has even started! How ridiculous!

Severus stormed into the Slytherin common room, scattering the new first-years who instinctively moved as one solid group during their first few weeks.

"Oy! What did Slughorn have to say?" Regulus called eagerly from one of the leather couches – he had obviously been waiting for Severus to bring news of some imperative tittle-tattle. Severus did not turn to recognise him, he continued storming up the stairs to the boy's dorms.

"Fuck all," he spat out behind him. One of the first years giggled uncomfortably in the background.

All of the seventh year Slytherin boys were in the dormitory when Severus arrived. Evan Rosier and Rodolphus Lestrange nodded greetings but no one else acknowledged his sudden presence. He violently pulled the curtains around his bed and got dressed, the letter from the Ministry still left crumpled in his hand. He knew Potter and Black merely wanted to provoke him into fighting that day at Diagon Alley… and even though, in Wizarding terms, he was of age that did not mean he was assured that cursing someone in public would pass Ministry regulations. Even though Slughorn had informed him that Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor, had passed out the very same warnings to Potter and Black - this did not deter him from desiring to extract a hard-hitting vengeance on the pair.

They'll regret everything they ever did. Soon they'll all know how powerful I can be.

The sounds of the Slytherin seventh years drowned out his thoughts.

"Got word from Lucius on the holidays…" came Lestrange's boastful voice, muffled by the thick curtains. Severus was intrigued at this revelation, but not enough to keep himself alert. He would hear the same thing at breakfast tomorrow, he was sure of it… especially as the last words he heard included "the Dark Lord...".

His eyes began to ache, and he gradually fell into a deep, uneasy slumber.

~*~


	5. Serpent and Eagle

**The Pureblood Prince**

**By AuroraSinisra87  
**

**Disclaimer: All characters, with a couple of exceptions, belong to J.K. Rowling.**

**WARNING: Sexual allusions - not graphic.**

CHAPTER V: Serpent and Eagle

"_I'm sorry!"_

"_No you're not, you little bitch! You do this to deliberately worry your mother and me! Gallivanting about outside with Muggles… are you incapable of processing how reprehensible and dishonourable that is?!"_

"_They were nice to me! I was only playing hop-scotch –"_

"_PLAYING THEIR MUGGLE GAMES! You have shamed your family!"_

"_I- father- I'm –I LIKED them! They talked to me -"_

_A hand swiftly came into harsh contact with Eileen's face._

"_Atticus! Stop that at once!"_

_The grey-haired man turned towards the door. Between the frames stood an equally impressive woman much younger than he, she was clothed in green robes and looking livid. _

"_Want to know what your precious daughter has been doing, Serafina?" Atticus spat, turning Eileen violently to face her concerned mother, "tell her _darling! _Tell your mother and make her see what you really are and prove wrong the lies she uses to protect you – go on!"_

"_I don't care what she did, you are NEVER to lay a hand on her like that again!" countered Serafina Prince viciously, pulling her daughter towards her and bringing her into a shielding embrace amongst her arms. Atticus threw a long, pale finger in the air._

"_This isn't over, Eileen" he warned. "One day you'll understand why WE do not mix with THEM – and you'll come running to us, and you'll be sorry, Merlin knows your mother will cave in to your idiocy but I…" He did not finish his sentence. With one piercing glare at mother and daughter Atticus stormed away from the scene, slamming the door behind him in his closing dramatic act. _

"_I'll never be sorry!" Eileen cried. She turned towards her mother and buried her head into her belly, her body shaking with exhaustion and distress. Serafina bent to kiss her black hair; she wrapped her arms around her terrified child and rocked her. And suddenly, all was right with the world._

"_Shhhh, shhh, shhh" Serafina whispered soothingly. "There's no need to be scared, little one" she dropped into a chair with the weeping little girl on her lap. "Mummy's here… mummy will look after you…"_

"_B-b-ut why doesn't he want me to have friends mummy? Why?"_

_Serafina tightened her embrace._

"_Eileen, you are a smart girl! If I've taught you anything it's that you should think for yourself. Your father learnt many years ago that I am more than adept of giving as good as I got… you just need to prove yourself capable, and he'll shut his fat prehistoric mouth up."_

_Eileen managed a small giggle, and she saw a smirk playing around her mother's porcelain features. _

"_Mummy, you shouldn't talk about daddy that way!"_

_Secretly, Eileen had always been so deeply in awe of her mother. The way she held herself, the way she smirked, the way she spoke… without restraint, without fear, with such fire and honesty. Eileen could only dream of such freedom. It must have felt good to be her._

"_And daddy shouldn't talk to you the way he did," her mother quickly added, her tone suddenly more serious._

_Eileen sat herself up upon Serafina's lap, looking defiantly into her black eyes, "no he shouldn't! I'm like you mummy, I'm not stupid, I'm a witch and they're Muggles! I can protect myself against Muggles 'cause I have a wand and magic and they don't!" she puffed out her chest proudly, desperately trying to become every inch her mother, who, it appeared, believed every word she said._

"_That is very true, Eileen. You are such a strong girl..." She drew her back into a loving embrace and kissed her forehead adoringly. _

"_You are my girl." _

* * *

Days ran into weeks, mild study ran into hours upon hours of frantically scribbling notes down in the library, the workload was getting fuller as term progressed and Severus gladly welcomed the challenge. At least now he had a proper excuse to avoid the unnecessary banter of his fellow Slytherins as they all sat around in the common room late into the night. The only topic of which he was remotely interested was of the alumni of Slytherin house, his old group of 'friends', and their activities of late. Severus ached for the day in which he himself could join them – there seemed undeniable stagnancy in studying for tests and practicing useless charms at Hogwarts, while Lucius and others were actively making something of themselves. Granted, his old friends had been out of Hogwarts for some years now, but Severus could never get over the envy of hearing their impressive tales, and imagining and dreaming of himself in a similar role. For now he would have to bide his time and learn above and beyond what he needed to succeed spectacularly.

The tales of He Who Must Not Be Named and his Death Eaters were now rife within the entire school. Oh, those idiot Gryffindors would scorn and the silly sentimental Hufflepuffs would gossip, but there was no doubt of the fascination it created amongst many of Severus's peers. Severus would sometimes stay up all night reading or listening about them. It seemed a life in which Severus could only dream of, of such power and respect. Power that he had never possessed before, despite his superior knowledge and intellect on most subjects of wizardry, despite the numerous amount spells and potions that he, himself, had invented! Something his fellow students and even most teachers and the most skilled wizard or witch could never in their life manage to accomplish! And still, _still _he lacked the respect from them - from everyone. But this… this was a way out… this was a future he deserved.

Most days Severus sat in the library alone; rarely did Regulus ever accompany him to such places save for looming assignments and exams. Some days he would attempt to be sociable and gather under the shady protection of the trees with his small group of seventh year Slytherins (in order to discover the latest information from the outside world), but usually he preferred the solitude and ability to think clearly without interruption; this was such a day. He sat in a dingy corner at the very back of the library, avoiding Madam Pince - the vulture-incarnate librarian - at all costs, flicking through numerous charms and potions and historical books lazily. He had no need for such an activity, but truth be told he hadn't much want to do anything else. A few Slytherins, sixth years by the looks of them, sat in front of a big arches window to the corner, busily studying for some sort of Potions test by the looks of their books. Severus eyed them for a while, and wished they would stop turning the pages so damned loudly.

"Oh, we haven't even started properties of Calming Draught!" cried one of the girls. Her friend, whom Severus recognised from the start of term feast, gave her a small push of warning – but this was a futile gesture.

"Silence!" came the painfully expected shrill of Pince, who had been stalking the bookshelves behind the group.

They immediately lowered the tone of their voices to an almost inaudible whisper. And for some reason, this irritated Severus even more. He started to pack away his books into his ancient looking bag, torn and sagging from the endless weight thrust into them over the course of seven years, and promptly made his way out of the library with the intention of locking himself away in the Slytherin common room. It was on the way there, however, that he came across a rather unpleasant sight.

"Sirius, I'm TELLING you it works!"

"Yeah, you keep saying that mate. I need some proof before I believe some of the shit you're coming up with!"

"Alright – show you right now if you want! Come on then!"

James Potter and his gang of brutes may have been heading away from the entrance to the library, where Severus stood, but their voices carried far enough to wake the Giants in the highlands. Curious, Severus silently slinked behind a stone pillar and watched them assemble under one of the bigger trees of the courtyard in front of him. James raised his wand at the base of the tree.

"S-"

"James!" one of the boys suddenly interjected. Severus tilted himself further away from the pillar to see him, it was Remus Lupin, one of the more mild-mannered of the lot – if not still completely irritating; James lowered his wand and turned to speak with him, their voices too inaudible for Severus to make out.

With a quiet curse towards all the nattering voices who drowned out what precious information he could get from Potter, Severus decided to head back to the dormitory before dinner arrived. There was special business to attend to.

* * *

"_You… what…?"_

"_I'm moving."_

"_Yes, child, that I understand. But… _him_?"_

"_HE loves me!"_

"_HE is a Muggle!"_

"_You sound exactly like father! I suppose you don't believe that I can take care of myself like you used to? Or is that I spit in the face of the precious little pure-blood fantasy you invented for me?!"_

"_Oh you are being so very naïve! Do you honestly think a Muggle man will understand you like a wizard would? Will be able to support you the way a wizard could?"_

"_Magic doesn't matter to me anymore mother. You may have married father for power and wealth, but I'm not about to make the same mistake as you."_

"_Mistake, you say? I'd prefer you to not make judgements on my choices, child! I am happily secured thanks to the match I made. If I had married for anything less… THAT I would consider a failure on my part. This, this family, the PRINCE family, is what I knew I deserved. Your father was simply the key."_

"_And Tobias Snape is what I deserve. There is no discrepancy – save I'll be with the man I love and you'll be alone in a big house with an old and violent dogmatist!"_

"_Ah, I can see now why you never followed the rest of your family into Slytherin. You have no pride in yourself or your abilities. You certainly have no ambition…"_

"_Yes, we all know how disappointed you must be in me mother! Only the crème de la crème can belong to your precious Slytherin… blight the Ravenclaw for breaking the chain of prejudice, right?"_

"… _you haven't even told him, have you Eileen?"_

"_I don't care about magic anymore, mother. If I have to give up this whole world for him, I'll do it. I shall have nothing to tell him."_

"_Idiot girl! Do you not understand that modesty and humility have no place within womankind? We cannot AFFORD it Eileen! You are throwing everything I've worked for right out of the window by running off with this filthy Muggle!"_

"_DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT TOBIAS LIKE THAT!"_

"_I and your father can do whatever we like in our own house! He is filthy Muggle brute who took away the good sense of my only daughter, my young and strong Ravenclaw, and until you come to your senses you are no longer welcome here!"_

_Without another word, without so much as an angry glare, the Ravenclaw lifted her head high and vanished from her mother's sights and thoughts._

_For the first time since her baby's birth… Serafina Prince wept. _

_

* * *

  
_

Severus was becoming frantic. He had hoped to spend the few hours before dinner perfecting the precious spells he kept safe within his mothers old potions textbook, _his _spells, _his _inventions, the pride and joy of all he had accomplished at Hogwarts. There was only one minor hurdle to this: the book was not there.

_Stupid bastard! _He cursed inwardly at himself. All the years he had protected this book with his life; he hardly let it out of his grasp! And as much as he wracked his brains to remember just exactly what he had done with it, he constantly kept coming to the same conclusion… it _had _been in his bag. He had not used it in a couple of days but it had stayed there, safe and hidden from moronic eyes.

With a frustrated sigh, Severus punched the pillow and fell back onto his bunk. He was not in the mood for dinner now. Besides, it could give him more precious time to search for his beloved book without being discovered by Regulus or any of the other Slytherin seventh year boys. He had often skipped meals to give himself the precious alone time he so dearly desired… he inwardly shuddered at the nightly reminders here that he was, indeed, not alone here. No, Severus would never in wildest dreams have allowed the boys, _anyone, _to hear him doing… _that. _Apparently the others did not have such a high sense of dignity as he.

The prospect of being alone for at least an hour, however, enticed him, urged him. The book could not have gotten far, anyway, and only the stupidest of fools would not have transcribed the inventions into another notebook – unfortunately, said notebook was bolted away in a drawer at Spinners End, with numerous charms and magical curses placed on the lock. Severus could not think clearly on such a fraught mind… and he could not take his mind off the problem enough to wholly relieve himself – faintly pleasing as it presently was.

Vicious circle.

To his satisfaction, his persistent mind began to relent. Firstly shifting between thoughts of the potions book and how vital it was that he find it before one of the teachers did, to the all-too-familiar sensation of his experienced hand. It didn't take long… he had long since become adept at taking the shortest amount of time possible, else risk being interrupted. He never did this for sheer pleasure, after all - it was simply a means to quench even a slight portion of his frustration.

Feeling a great sense of new-founded clarity, Severus allowed himself a very brief moment to relax, as he always did. It was the _only_ time he did. A passing moment where there was nothing to think about, a time to clear ones minds without the strain of actively trying to shutdown. Now the burden had been somewhat lifted, Severus took in a deep sigh, and was about to head off to the bathroom when he heard noises coming form the Slytherin common room below.

_Blast, why did they have to come back so early? _

With snake-like reflexes, Severus had managed to hurl all of his books back into his chest and tidy his bed before heading to the landing to see who had decided to skive off dinner early. He needn't have bothered, however, when he came face to face with Regulus in the arch of the doorway.

"Was wondering where you were," came Regulus' swift comment.

"Wasn't hungry," Severus mumbled, "had some Astronomy study I wanted to catch up on… you ate awfully fast?"

He was surprised at just how annoyed he was at Regulus for this.

Regulus pushed his away past his fellow Slytherin and slumped down onto Severus's bunk.

"Yeah, well, if you had to eat around your idiot Mudblood-loving Gryffindor brother I'm sure you'd lose your appetite some time or another!"

Severus leant against one of the bedposts casually and crossed his arms.

"I'd have thought you'd be revelling in the fact that he's a destitute, homeless decrepit now, Regulus? I know I am."

"Hardly!" Regulus shot back, violently pulling off his shoes (Severus frowned- could he have not done that in his own dormitory?). "I overheard them coming into the Great Hall this evening. He's at that Potter's house! Can you believe that? The bastard has no remorse for what he did to our family whatsoever! Burning him off our tapestry was something he probably _wanted, _what kind of punishment is that to him?"

With an extremely amused smirk, Severus walked around to face his so-called "friend".

"If you're saying you want to teach your oaf of a brother a certain 'lesson' before we all graduate, then you have me at your service…"

"… you know the kind of lesson we're going to teach them, Severus. _After _graduating."

The breathtaking image began to trickle into Severus's mind… him, Severus Snape, standing cloaked, an expressionless mask, his wand raised… vengeance extracted. How powerful he would be! How his father would curse the day he had ever turned on his wizard son and pureblood wife.

It was then that Severus decided to divulge in Regulus something that only he and one other person in the world knew…

"Listen carefully to this, Regulus," he started, leaning in as to avoid being overheard by the other few voices now appearing in the direction of the common room. "I have, over the years, developed a few… _inventions… _that may prove useful if I were to make my way into _their _circle."

"Inventions?"

"Spells, potions, curses…"

"… _you? _Fuck off."

"Where did you think all my knowledge of curses came from? I didn't read up on them all in the restricted section, did I?"

Regulus shook his head - both stunned and slightly agitated. "Stop being a prick, Severus! You're _seventeen_. Sure, my parents have taught me loads of curses over the years, what kind of family doesn't? But even they couldn't invent their own!"

Severus felt a stab of pride.

"Believe what you will, Regulus, but nevertheless, I have a few curses that may prove useful to you in impressing that… family of yours… and even the Dark Lord himself, if you are willing to give me something in return."

Regulus snorted, looking Severus up and down. "You know, if you really wanted money Severus, you needn't offer made-up inventions for-"

Without a seconds thought, Severus's hand had snapped out to clasp Regulus Black's collar. He pulled him towards his face, etched with sudden anger and hostility.

"I want none of your blasted money, do you hear?! I have survived seventeen years without so much as a galleon in the bank and I'm still a more powerful wizard than all seventh years combined! Do not make me out to be some poor charity case in need, Regulus, or I assure you – you will regret it."

"Alright! Alight!" Regulus replies, pushing Severus's hand away from him. "Don't be so bloody touchy all the time! What IS it that you want?"

"I want information."

"What kind of information?"

"I want to know all the pureblood families connections."

"You mean a tapestry?"

Severus rolled his eyes. He knew there would have to be some explaining to do. "Not just a tapestry… I want all the information you possess on pureblood ancestry."

"Can't you just ask your parents about that?"

_Ha! _

"My mother… doesn't agree with such things." Severus mumbled back. _Were they all so inbred that they failed to notice the most "noble" House of Snape would be the last name to ever appear on their ridiculous tapestries? _"She was barred long ago from her good name and sizeable inheritance by my grandparents. My father no longer permits contact with them, and it is my mothers wish that I adhere to what he says."

_No matter how nonsensical it must look to have a Muggle tell a witch whom she can and cannot speak to._

"So what about your fathers side-?"

"We are going around in circles here Regulus," Severus quickly interrupted, else be forced to make up some fast and possibly very incriminating lies. "All I want is that. I want nothing more than that information… if I am to leave here and follow Lucius Malfoy into that circle, I _need _to know that vital history on bloodlines, -else it be my undoing. In return I shall give you your pick of my curses to impress the Dark Lord with when it is your turn to join us."

"One curse?"

"Just one." Severus was indeed too proud and protective over his work to be giving them away in such a fashion... but Regulus was the key to a vast knowledge of Wizarding ancestry, knowledge he knew his own mother would never give him.

"Alright then. Give me the curse and I'll let you visit Grimmauld Place over the summer, good enough?"

"Good enough. I'll teach it to you over the next few weeks."

"Fine. I'll be off then." Regulus nodded his goodbye to Severus, leaving the latter standing alone, once again, in the middle of dormitory.

Severus could not help but feel an overwhelming sensation of disappointment in himself. Out of all the purebloods he had come into contact with, he _knew _he was infinitely more talented and powerful than they were. It was something he always prided himself on – something he wished he could rub in the face of all those pureblood maniacs. The half-blood who triumphed over them all! It was a title to be proud of. The thought of studying up on purebloods to make himself seem more versed in their world disgusted him – like he was disappearing into the crowd. No longer the powerful half-blood Prince he was.

However, the thought also intrigued him. He knew long ago that he felt proud to be her son, proud to be part of her – she was the sole reason he had given himself that title after all. If he learned all the secrets of the Princes, perhaps he could reclaim some of that pride. It was like he was being pulled in two directions at once…

His path was clear. If she wasn't going to do it herself then he would have to take on the task of protecting her. He would get all the information he could in order to one day see her laugh in the face of those who abused her, doubted her. For Tobias, in turn, to cower in fear in front of wife and son… as they had so often done before him.

_This _was the reason.

~*~


	6. Mondayitis

_AN: this is the longest chapter I've EVER written (it took long enough too), but I'm quite pleased with its progress. Please do R&R._

**The Pureblood Prince  
**

**By AuroraSinistra87  
**

**Disclaimer: **All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

CHAPTER VI: Mondayitis

_The house was small; there was no doubt about that. _

_A tiny hallway that led into a tiny sitting room; ahead, a tiny area where they ate. A tiny kitchen barely fit to contain two people at once, upstairs two tiny bedrooms, one barely larger than the other._

_But it was hers. It was theirs._

_Tobias was a hard worker. It may not have been glamorous, but it was noble and decent work. It put a roof over their heads and food in their belly… she loved him for that. She loved him for everything he was. He was nothing like… them._

_He never questioned her decision to renounce her ties with the Princes; this was a quite convenient stance on Tobias's part, as she never cared to explain. What good would it do? That part of her life was over and he husband was the replacement. A very fitting placement if she did say so herself!_

_She had, by now, almost completely immersed herself in the Muggle world – though, still remaining weary of it, managed to maintain a distance. Enough to get by, but nowhere near enough to thrive. She would feel lonely sometimes, especially those long hours spent by herself in the crammed little home, while her husband worked to keep them. She was not adept enough to sustain a Muggle job and she was certainly too proud to return to a wizarding one. _

_She had no Muggle friends, and all her old school colleagues were all but forgotten. She resided, in many ways, in her own world – caught in a diving line. _

_Sometimes she would cry. Then the door would creak open and he would be there… and it was forgotten._

"_Hello, love." She called from the kitchen on such a night. She heard Tobias's harsh footsteps coming through the hallway door. _

"_Bloody bus was quarter of an hour late," Tobias started, "hope you didn't start dinner too soon eh?"_

"_No, I-" she stopped momentarily to learn forward towards him, encouraging him to face her and kiss her lightly on her cold lips (she closed her eyes for just a split second and savoured the feeling). "-waited to see what you wanted. I have some left over pasta from last night, or I think we have some fish fingers somewhere…?" _

"_Well I can' have fish fingers by themselves, Ei."_

"_I'll cook them both then."_

_After dinner was finished and Tobias had had his bath, they would settle down for bed. It was her favourite time of day. They would usually make love and she would settle in his arms, just like the first time they ever did. It was simple and it was good and it was all she needed._

_Until Eileen Snape wanted more._

* * *

Over the coming weeks, Regulus had become more and more adamant that he perfect his new curse before his seventh year colleague left school for good. Amongst the final rush towards the NEWT's, Severus realised that trading one of his beloved inventions for one measly day at the Black family home may not have been the most ideal of plans - especially as Regulus failed to comprehend that he would not be at his beck and call every day to assist him in learning the curse.

It was no skin of off his nose that Regulus Black continuously stuck to his belief that Severus could never have invented the spell himself – for he would eventually know the truth when he joined ranks with him in just a few years time. However, the various excuses he was coming up with in order to explain such a phenomenon were getting slightly irksome.

"If I looked hard enough in the restricted section, I'm _sure _I could find the exact same curse you're teaching me, you know."

Severus glared at him from across the table during breakfast in the Great Hall that drizzling Monday morning. "By all means, Regulus, search away." He said, casually flipping through a rather ancient copy of _Advanced Arithmancy for the Advanced Witch of Wizard. _

"You know you're graduating in a few weeks."

"An astute observation."

"Yeah, well if I don't get this spell thing right by then the deal's off!" Regulus snapped, violently shoving a piece of bacon into his mouth.

Severus momentarily broke his concentration from the NEWT Arithmancy book. "I gave you the incantation, I gave you all the tools you need to perfect it, therefore I think it only fair that I still be allowed a few measly _titbits _of information from you."

"Well ungh, it betterb berk." Regulus replied through a mouthful of bread. Severus curled his lip in disgust. He had had enough of brutish, uncivilised men to last him a lifetime. When Regulus had returned to his usual gang of Slytherins, he took one last bite of his now cold piece of toast, slung his dilapidated bag over his shoulder and headed toward the library.

* * *

_When, _WHEN, _can I go to the library in peace without being hit in the face with such a depressing sight? _Severus mentally sighed to himself after witnessing a depressing amount of seventh year Gryffindors crowding around in the usual spot just outside the library. As usual Severus made his way into the shadows as to avoid any unnecessary attention. Though, again, as usual, he stopped behind his customary stone pillar to take a glance at them… he waited for anything… _anything… _he could use against them.

And he was about to have it.

There was a larger crowd than usual here. Not just Gryffindors (as was so regrettably time-honoured amoungst these parts of Hogwarts) but Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs, even some Slytherins… Regulus was there. Regulus was-

_SNAP!_

A green flash of light erupted over the courtyard. The surrounding students mostly fled to the adjacent trees, out of sight. Regulus was standing, breathless, before Sirius Black – who was clutching a bloodied arm and shouting incomprehensible things at his furious looking brother.

_Oh, cursing out in the open now, Regulus? How very wise. _Severus thought with great disdain. He clicked his tongue irritably and stalked into the library; he had had enough family disputes to last him a lifetime… he certainly wasn't about to subject himself to another's. Severus sat down, pulled out his NEWT's Astronomy book and a long piece of parchment, already scribbled with black, cramped characters, and continued writing his notes.

… _For a Keplerian disk, the orbital angular velocity is proportional to R-3/2, where R is the distance from Saturn's centre. Individual particles within – _

"_Levicorpus!"_

Severus's brain abruptly snapped. No matter how illegible the faint arguing and cursing may have been from within the walls of the library, he could hear that which belonged to him anywhere…

Without a second thought to his belongings, he leapt from the table, toppling the chair over as he did so, and rushed to the entrance.

"FIVE POINTS FROM SLYTHERIN, MISTER!" Madam Pince shrieked as he sped past her - as if he had a care for the House cup! He pushed his way through the nattering crowd to see not Sirius, but _Regulus _suspended in the air. Potter's wand pointed toward him.

"NO!"

Potter twisted around to see the direction from which the sudden objection came, but it was too late. Severus had already drawn out his own wand and stabbed it hatefully in the air. All rational thought had disappeared. Severus felt every artery in body pounding with rage… James Potter! _His own spell! Well, he would have to use another of his own spells to teach him, wouldn't he?!_

"_Langlock!"_

Potter began to splutter, mumbling inaudible things at Severus – which gave him time to deal with Sirius Black, who had by now pushed his friend aside and had his own wand risen at Severus. Regulus still hung, struggling, up above the scene.

"_STUPEFY!"_

"_MORDAX!"_

The two curses from both boys' wands rebounded, mid-air. Sirius' stupefy curse bounced back and hit him square in the face where he toppled onto the ground, cataleptic. Severus' finely attuned reflexes enabled him to leap off his feet and hit the ground before his own invented curse – one which would sting the target uncontrollably until the counter curse was muttered - had hit him. However, he was not prepared for the one that hit him directly in the back as he rose once more to finish off Potter, still gargling on his words.

"_Stupefy!" _came the voice of Remus Lupin.

The world around him began to tune in and out of colour… consciousness left before he hit the grass.

* * *

Slowly, ever so gently, voices began to creep into Severus's head. The world was still black, but he could hear conversation behind his eyes. He dared not open them for the time being… his head was pounding so excruciatingly that he feared the barest glimpse of light would finish him off completely. Was he in his bed? But why were there female voices here? Surely they'd all be leaving soon for class… or was it the holidays?

Suddenly, an icy cold spray of liquid scattered all over his face. He jumped up in pure shock and confusion, before realising that this possibly wasn't the best action he could have taken. His brain was obviously trying to detach itself from his spine. He slowly opened his eyes (out of necessity more than anything) to find himself in an empty classroom, Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse, sitting over him and holding what looked to be like a revive potion in a spray can.

"Well, that took less time than I expected." She said briskly.

Spluttering and shaking, Severus sat himself up and blinked furiously, vigorously trying to regain his short-term memory. "What happened?" he demanded, his head pounding against his retinas.

"A stunning spell was cast on you and, unfortunately, you decided that a rock would be the best place to rest your head on. That is all I will say on the matter," Pomfrey replied in a very condescending tone, as if he should have known better. Severus knew he was not going to get anything out of her; the woman was notoriously unrelenting. "Let's see how you do on your legs shall we? Take it slowly…"

"I don't need your help!" Severus shot, clutching at the wall to steady himself. Pomfrey sat back, looking at him with a bemused expression.

"Is that so, young lad?" she said with a dramatic nod. "I suggest you tell me that _after _you've avoided hurtling yourself into that table right in front of you, not before."

Severus omitted a heavy sigh. Damned woman, she was probably right.

Taking that as her cue, Madam Pomfrey supported his weight as rose to his feet. Severus did indeed take a few stumbles, much thanks to what felt like panes of glass being smashed around in his skull, but was able to steady himself after a few seconds. He could now feel an unusual warm spot on the side of his head – after bringing his fingers up to it, he realised it was a deeper cut than anticipated.

"Now, hospital wing." Pomfrey demanded.

"No, I'm-"

"That's not a request."

* * *

As soon as the pair had entered the ward, Severus realised just how much trouble he was in. Professor Slughorn was already there, and spent most of his time avoiding Madam Pomfrey's cries of objections that he had to _wait _until she had finished patching her patient up. After the gash was healed and a counter concussion potion was administered, she finally discharged him from her care.

"He's all yours, Professor. But I'd thank you not to make a scene here if you please, I have other patients to care for." Pomfrey mumbled over her shoulder. The Head of Slytherin nodded briskly and motioned for Severus to follow him. After murmuring a quick work of thanks to the nurse, Severus was escorted, not the dungeons as he had anticipated, but to Professor McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindors, office.

"Come in, lad." Slughorn ordered, holding open the large oak door for him. As Severus entered and the saw the faces of the other four boys already there, all memory of the attack suddenly came back to him… including the merciless rage.

"_You!"_

"Now, now, Severus," warned Slughorn. "You've pushed my tolerance levels quite enough for the year."

"And it goes far beyond mine!" Professor McGonagall barked from behind her desk. She pulled out her wand and summoned another chair right in front of her desk. "_Sit."_

With great effort, Severus managed to clear his mind enough to take a seat next to Sirius Black without giving into the temptation of introducing his aching hands to Black's neck.

"Well, now that I've heard Mr. Potter, Mr. Lupin and the two Mr. Black's stories I would like you to explain to me, Mr. Snape, _just exactly what you think you were doing in that courtyard?!" _McGonagall said, her voice shaking with condemnation. Severus raised his eyebrow coolly.

"Potter was cursing Regulus in broad daylight. I merely came to his aid."

"Regulus provoked him!" shot back Sirius. "If you had heard, Profess-"

"I've already heard your side of it, Mr. Black, thank you! Anything else you'd like to add, Mr. Snape, before your Head of House and I deliberate on your punishments?"

"Nothing in particular, Professor. But I personally feel that Potter, Black and Lupin should be expelled for their actions…"

"That will do, Severus." Slughorn interrupted.

"… I was, after all, cursed from behind by one of them!" Severus continued, spitting fury at the three Gryffindors next to him.

"_HE _was the one who used Dark magic on me, Professors!" Potter suddenly yelled in competition. "My tongue glued itself to the roof of my mouth!" it took all of Severus's strength to suppress a small smirk.

"Yes, _I've heard your side, _Potter!"

"Then what did _you _use on me before Severus arrived?"

It was the first time Regulus had spoken, and his words had succeeded in stumping Potter completely. Severus could not help but clutch his hand tightly over his wand however; he wanted to curse Regulus into oblivion for exposing his spell to his worst enemy. How else could Potter have _possibly _learnt it?

"Oh… come on… that never hurt anyone," Potter attempt to sound casual failed him spectacularly. Severus rolled his eyes; Gryffindors and subtlety, chalk and cheese.

"Yeah! What Snivell- Severus did was a hundred times worse! The nurse had quite a time unstacking his tongue!" Sirius objected loudly.

"She had a hard time figuring out how to get me down too!" bellowed his brother. "There was no counter curse!"

"SHUT YOUR SLIMEY FACE, REGULUS! JAMES' SPELL WAS HARMLESS!"

"CURSE!"

"SPELL!"

"Bastard!"

_Fools. _Severus thought, leaning back in his chair.

"_Quiet! QUIET!" _McGonagall shrieked over the noise. The wrangling boys suddenly fell quiet. "As a start, and I don't care WHO started it at this stage, I am taking twenty points from Regulus Black and fifty each from the rest of you! _You _four-" she jabbed a long, thin finger at Severus, Potter, Black and Lupin (who had not uttered one word since Severus arrived) "- are _seventh _years. You should know better than to conduct such childish behaviours at your age! I'm very disappointed in you all! You have your NEWT's coming up in a few days and this is how you spend your time? Fighting?! Every _year _it is the same scenario, but I would have thought that this year, at least, you all would have finally _grown up!_"

She took a deep exhalation; comparable to a person suffering a bitter disappointment.

"And you, Mr. Potter, as Head Boy this is especially outrageous!" she continued. "And Mr. Lupin, I expected better from a Gryffindor prefect, I expect better from any Gryffindor. I'm sure Professor Slughorn, you feel the same way about these two Slytherin boys?"

"But of course, Minerva."

"You are all lucky I don't expel you on the spot. But considering how much that would tarnish your professional records…"

"I'm sorry, Professor…" came Remus Lupin's remorseful voice.

"… well, you can all prove it by serving detentions, I think." McGonagall answered, slowly standing and moving to a rather large and decrepit book. She took out a quill and began to search through it. "The headmaster shall be informed, and I will be sending out owl's to all your parents tonight - to keep them up to date with their _juvenile's_ misdemeanours_…" _

Severus closed his eyelids slowly in trepidation. Sirius Black was equally displeased at this last statement, but not for the same reasons.

"I don't _have _any parents."

Regulus shifted in his chair, as if weighing up the consequences of cursing his estranged brother in a room shared between the Slytherin and Gryffindor Heads of Houses.

"Yes, Mr. Black, we are well aware of your… situation. In your case your owl shall be sent to the Potters. That is, I believe, your place of residence?"

"Yes, it is." Both Potter and the older Black said simultaneously. Both with the same obnoxious grin on their faces as they glanced at each other. Severus had such an urge to vomit over the lot of them.

"Right, well!" Slughorn suddenly exclaimed. "If that's all Minerva, I might take these two boys down to my office and sort out their punishments?"

"Very well, Horace. Potter, Black, Lupin – I shall see you after my class tomorrow. You may leave also. And if you even _think-_" she pointed at them threateningly, "_ – _of doing anything like this again, you will very much regret it!"

With the usual chorus of apologies and thank you's, the Gryffindors emptied themselves out of McGonagall's office. Not before James Potter and Severus Snape had exchanged the customary death stare, however.

"Come along, Severus!" Slughorn called from the door, Regulus at his side. Severus waited until they all were sure to be out of earshot before he spoke again.

"Professor McGonagall?"

"What is it, Mr. Snape?"

"I'd…" he took a deep breath. This was not an easy request. "I was wondering if it were possible for you _not _to send an owl to my parents."

McGonagall looked up for the first time, her sharp eyes boring into his cavernous ones.

"I'm sorry, Snape, but I cannot go back on my word."

"I realise that, Ma'am, but you don't understand – could you not post the letter?"

"Post?"

"You know, the Muggle way…through the letterbox."

McGonagall frowned. He got the distinct impression that she was analysing him, studying his slightest change in facial expression – this made him even more uncomfortable than he already was, if it were possible.

"Well, I… I suppose it could be…" she appeared genuinely stumped at his odd request. "But you are Eileen's son, are you not? I taught Miss Prince, Mrs. Snape should I say, many years ago. Gifted Ravenclaw girl she was. Surely a witch of her stature…"

It appeared to suddenly dawn on her. He had expected as much.

"Ah, your father? Muggle is he?"

"Yes, ma'am…" muttered Severus.

"Not too fond of the owls?"

"_No, _ma'am_." _He started to feel extremely warm around the collar.

"Not to worry, it is common of many Muggles… although not many children request this of the school…"

"Could you _please _just make sure it arrives in a Muggle fashion? Preferably with only my mothers name attached." Severus realised he had probably sounded just a tad too despairing in his plea there… she would be onto him like a hawk now. The concerned way in which she gazed at him proved him one hundred percent correct. He avoided her eyes.

"I shall try my best, Mr. Snape. But may I just ask… perhaps you'd like to consider talking to your Head of House about anything that may be… bothering you at home? My door is always open, by all means, but I am sure you'd prefer someone who knows you from a mentors point of view… that's why your Head of House is there."

Severus almost snorted, trying to imagine himself unloading all of his domestic troubles onto Slughorn. If he didn't begrudgingly respect Professor McGonagall to a certain degree he would have slandered her for ever assuming he would do such a thing.

"Well then," McGonagall said, obviously accepting that she would get nowhere with the boy, "if that is all Mr. Snape, I think you should be heading along to Professor Slughorn's office for information on your detention."

"Yes, Professor." Severus nodded curtly and made his way out of the office.

* * *

As Severus descended downward to the dungeons, he barely caught a glimpse of Potter and climbing from the very same place. He was confidant in the fact that they would not start anything, at least today, but his hand still instinctively clasped his wand.

"- back where it belongs-" Potter was muttering to his bully-in-crime before they passed.

Potter did not even acknowledge him, while Black shot a furious glare before violently bumping into shoulder. Severus did not even look back this time; he had had enough of the sight of their faces to last time ten lifetimes.

He could not help but wildly wonder, however, just why they had felt the urge to venture into the dungeons when all their classes were over for the year.

At the moment, however, this thought was overshadowed by the pure abhorrence he was feeling towards Regulus Black, and how he was sure to make Regulus regret ever spilling his inventions, his most prized possessions, to the two people he hated most in this world bar his father.

Put shortly, Severus Snape's morning had certainly not been one of his best…

~*~


	7. Feels Like Home

**The Pureblood Prince**

**Notes: **This chapter is really, really long and for that I apologise - but I couldn't stop myself! Read & review if you feel like it. It would be appreciated but it's certainly not expected - just read!

**Disclaimer: **All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

_CHAPTER VII: Feels Like Home  
_

_It was an icy cold January morning when the dark-haired woman, surrounded in black robes, made her way through the cobbled street of Spinners End. _

_Eileen had caught sight of the woman a few moments ago and watched her vigilantly through the front window. She had been expecting her arrival… and was indeed surprised that she had come sooner than expected. Now she was here, however, Eileen wished she would simply turn around and fly home. No… apparate. That's what they used to do, wasn't it?_

_Oh how different mother and daughter both were now. Serafina Prince so very elegant and refined as always; the pure black hair that they both shared tied into an organised, practical bun like Eileen had remembered… the black and green robes, the silver serpent tying her emerald cloak together. She had always been so beautifully intimidating - in a way in which her daughter could never dream to be. Even now, nearing her late fifties, her facial features were as sharp and as calculating and as… striking as ever._

_Eileen Snape had none of her mother's graces. All of her life it had been her knowledge and brains that had impressed her family. It seemed to please her mother completely, that her daughter may not have inherited her looks or mannerisms, but she was certainly powerful. As long as that power remained in her daughter's hands, Serafina had been content. Now Eileen stood in Muggle clothes in a run down house, her hair in a very ordinary ponytail… and while she still had the perpetual Ravenclaw within her – she knew it would never be enough to impress her merciless Slytherin mother with._

_Eileen had opened the door well before Serafina had reached the steps leading to it. The two women stood, unmoving - identical black eyes boring into one another's, refusing to back down. _

_It was Serafina who moved first, much to the astonishment of Eileen. She continued her way up the cracked and grey steps to come to a stop directly in front of her motionless daughter. As anticipated she looked Eileen up and down, frowning slightly in what Eileen presumed to be masked disgust at the image of her daughter in a dress that hemmed up to her knees. It was, however, the exact same look that Tobias's parents John and Veronica had given Eileen when she had come to visit for the same purpose a week ago– leaving her to assume it was more of a generational issue rather than a Muggle vs. wizarding one. _

"_Hello, Eileen… you look… relaxed. I suppose that's the way it is for you young women nowadays isn't it? Feminism and whatnot." _

_Oh, that old snarky attitude of hers was just asking for a good slap! Eileen had to force herself not to bring up her mothers sordid history with an assortment of awful (and awfully rich) men, and how she was the last person in the world who knew anything about living with dignity and respect._

"_What do you want, mother?" Eileen's reply had shocked even herself. Not because of what she had said, but at the bubbling anger inside her of having her mother at the doorstep of everything that she had once avoided like the plague. She knew why Serafina was here – and the mere idea incensed her… _

_Serafina's face grew even sterner, if that were possible. "May I come in at least? Or has Muggle life taken all the manners out of you already?"_

_Eileen knew very well that her mother relished in playing these kinds of mind games with people… Eileen, in turn, enjoyed showing her that she was above it. She opened up the door and allowed Serafina to enter, preparing for the verbal trashing about Muggle homes she was in no doubt bound to get._

_Surprisingly, Serafina said nothing. She dusted off her cloak and swirled it around the banister of the stairs. Taking one swift look around, she turned back to her daughter, who had indicated the direction of the living room. _

"_How are you feeling?" Serafina stated casually as she took a seat on the faded floral couch. _

"_Very well. Very, very well." Eileen replied coolly. "Would you like some tea?"_

"_Thank you."_

_Eileen waited by the kettle, eager to create space from her mother for as long as she could. When she entered the room again, however, Serafina appeared ready to begin her questioning. _

"_I read the notice in the Prophet, I never thought you would have written to them..."_

"_Didn't you?" Eileen replied casually over her cup. "Well, I wanted to have it known in the wizarding world as well as the Muggle. It only seemed right."_

"_You didn't attend St. Mungo's, I presume?"_

"_I had no need… the Muggle hospital in Derby took wonderful care of us."_

"_Ah… and it went smoothly?"_

"_Very well indeed… the stitches are probably the most lasting pain I have… ah - stitches are something Muggle healers use. I won't go into detail, it's rather messy, but it's effective enough."_

"_I see." Serafina was giving her a fantastically sympathetic look - it was very annoying. "Well, I am glad you are recovering well Eileen."_

"_Better than I've ever felt, mother."_

"_Good. May I see the child?"_

"_No."_

_Serafina was unmistakably blown back by Eileen's effortless denial. _

"_When will I see him, then?"_

_Eileen placed her teacup delicately onto the tabletop in front of her. "When he's old enough to decide if he wants to see you himself."_

_Serafina uttered a gasp of contempt. "Ridiculous! I have a right to my own grandson!"_

"_You have no right to him whatsoever! I won't have you putting any of your pureblood dogma into his head. That isn't to say he will be forbidden from contacting you if he feels the need. The choice lies with my son and my son only."_

"_My grandson has the right to know our side of the family. Where he came from. I presume your… husbands Muggle parents have already seen him, why not us?" _

_Eileen felt like laughing in her ignorant face but managed to control herself. _

"_Mother, Tobias's parents are simple people who've lead extremely unadulterated lives – they cannot offer Severus what you will in doubt offer him."_

_Serafina snorted, clearly amused by this statement. "I think, Eileen, that you are a shining example that my life lessons are inconsequential."_

_Eileen stared at her mother for a while, as if scrutinizing her motives to an almost microscopic level. The feeling in the pit of her stomach was beginning to get too hard to ignore. But she would not let her mother see her falter, not once. _

"_If I let you see him now, it will never end. You'll make my Severus believe that he has some sort of duty to fulfil, all in the name of the Princes, like you did me." Eileen held back the stinging in her eyes with all her might. "But what you must understand is that it is not your happiness, nor my own, nor Tobias's, that matters to me anymore."_

"_And you don't believe that your happiness was what I always strived for? You don't think that I want the same for my grandson?"_

"_Forgive me but I don't, mother. I would die for Severus in a heartbeat. You couldn't even bring yourself to get along with my husband for my sake. Your pride got in the way."_

_A few moments passed between them. Eileen relished in it. She wanted her mother to feel the pain, which had ached her daughter for these last five years. Only when she had something to gain did this old woman force herself onto the doorstep of the "filthy Muggles" home. Eileen could have sworn she saw a slight break in Serafina's composure. It didn't give her as much pleasure as she thought…_

"_Severus…" Serafina whispered, as if she was standing right in front of her grandchild's crib, trying ever so tenderly not to wake him. Eileen surveyed her mother through her curtain of black hair. She had never felt so powerful over her… but Eileen had always been very responsible with power. _

"_I didn't name him after anyone. Toby always said I had great taste for the peculiar… he was just happy it was a boy – though Severus's grandpa insists on calling him 'Soren'-" Eileen replied, almost with a laugh. "– Well, apparently that's Severus in another language… something he feels is more acceptable. I can barely stand it when he calls him that, you know; you'd think he'd devote the time he took to research Severus's name toward something more productive. But Tobias thinks it best if we don't argue."_

"_It is a fine name. A fine name for the fine man my grandson will become, no doubt." _

_Eileen felt the ache slightly lift from her… hearing her mother utter her sons name so gently as opposed to deciding it was in her power to change his name completely as her father-in-law did… it was soothing. _

"_Speaking of Tobias - he will be home from the mill soon, I'll need to make him dinner. He's been working double shifts to keep us, you know… I'm afraid you've come at the wrong time if you wished to avoid seeing him."_

"_Well, I'd best be on my way then."_

_Eileen did not move as her mother gathered herself up. She supposed the effort that Serafina had shown by simply gracing this run down semi-detached house with her presence, and almost pleading to see her only grandchild, should have incited her daughter to at least give her some form of embrace. But all the love she had ever harboured for anyone else seemed as trifling now as mere acquaintances, compared to the imperishable, aching love for her husband and the perfect baby boy he had given her… her tiny little son slumbering in the crib upstairs…_

_And as long as Serafina continued to hold such hatred to Muggle kind - Eileen knew it would never be safe for child and grandmother to meet. Not until Severus had learned to be just that – Severus. And not a tool of the Princes._

"_I am willing to pay for anything he needs," her mother continued as they reached the front door. "Not just his schooling, mind you, but anything that might make his life comfortable."_

_Instead of the usual fury at her mother's insinuations that Tobias was a good for nothing provider and that Muggle life would not be fit even for sewer rats - Eileen, who felt almost cleansed by a wave of serenity at such compliance with her wishes, gave the elder woman a tranquil smile. _

"_Thank you but we don't need any help, mother. Toby and I can take as much care of our baby as the richest pureblood family could"._ _She knew by the way Serafina's dark eyes flashed that she did not believe a word of it. _

_A small cry echoed from upstairs… Eileen felt the same habitual maternal urge to run to him as always. _

_Serafina's head jerked towards the sound, Eileen almost thought she was readying herself to shove her daughter into the doorframe and scurry up the stairs to get a glimpse of her grandson. Both sadness and anger seemed to radiate from her at once – as if her mind was screaming: 'This is all your filthy Muggle husbands fault!' but__Eileen had no time for her. A far more significant being needed her attention._

"_Thank you for stopping by, mother."_

_Serafina, ostensibly remembering herself, sniffed harshly. "Very well. Tell him I will be waiting – __**Severus**__ is always welcome in your father and mine's home." – she apparated without another word of protest, save for that final sting at the daughter who had always disappointed her._

_Closing the door tightly behind her, Eileen rushed upstairs to her son. She nursed him and then held him tightly in her arms for as long as she possibly could… marvelling in quiet awe over him, as she supposed all mothers did their child, the tiny sounds he made as he dozed, the softness of his hair as black as his mothers, the way he would intermittently grasp at her skin as if making sure she was still there. As Eileen rocked her baby and sang him to sleep, all the painful memories vanished into song. _

_She knew such precious times would not last. She could not hold him like this and protect him from everything in the world that could possibly hurt him – not forever. But she could teach him, and she could love him, and she could be everything a mother should be._

_Eileen sang to her baby._

* * *

"Quills down, please!" the examiner's shrill voice echoed all over the Great Hall. "This signals the end of your Arithmancy exam. Please sit still and silent while your papers are collected."

There were not many students in the Great Hall. Indeed, only about ten or so. Most had dropped Arithmancy during their OWL's in their fifth year after realising just how complicated the subject actually was; they'd never admit to such a things, of course, most had resigned themselves into believing that it was the pure fault of the subject and/or the subject's teachers themselves that they were never able to understand it.

Severus was not one of these people. He had scribbled down most of his number charts with ease and had finished well within the time limit, though he had kept obsessively checking each and every answer until the time had run out - as any true diligent, assiduous student would, of course. He had been quite confident in all the NEWT's that had passed so far… Transfiguration had been rather frustrating – only due to the practical where they had to transfigure ridiculous objects into even more ridiculous objects; the Astronomy theory and practical had passed, quite a challenge, but Severus enjoyed challenges. Astronomy was the only subject that did not include any use of magic whatsoever, but rather demanded a great knowledge of logic and the sciences – particularly physics and mathematics; it was something that had always extracted a great respect from Severus, despite being classed by some of the dimmer students as a rather "Muggle-esque" subject. The Defence Against the Dark Arts theory had been more than satisfactory – even if he had to share the same space with the god-awful Gryffindor awesome foursome for that.

Professor Alcor, the silver-haired Astronomy teacher, who was the only Hogwarts staff present here for this exam, signalled to the students that they may now make their way out of the examination area. Severus gathered up his belongings and made to find a spot outside to study up for the Potions theory exam the following day.

"Oi! Sev!"

A hand had grabbed the back of his collar. Severus swirled around to find Regulus standing behind him.

"Just wanted to say thanks," Regulus explained. "Those bastards – well - I owe you one."

Without warning, Severus clenched his hand around the fifth-year's collar and pulled him forwards so that their faces were mere inches from each other.

"Our association ends here." He spat silkily, his voice so low it was certain that the two boys were the only ones to hear him. "I gave you that curse in confidence. _Not to prance around showing it off to blasted Gryffindors!" _

"But- I- didn't-" Regulus choked.

"_No-one _knows my spells. I made damn sure of that. The one mistake I made in showing one of them to _one _person, whom I thought could trust with it, has resulted in my work being spread around the Gryffindor common room like wildfire!"

"Let- me- go- you arse!"

Severus released his grip, his still face void of any colour.

"Potter used it first, Severus, I never even uttered a word!" Regulus spat viciously, wiping down his robes and rearranging his collar. "You know how they are! I bumped into old trusty brother Sirius in the courtyard after breakfast, next thing you know along comes Potter with his prefect friend…"

"And he _obviously_ used Legilimency to extract my spell from you, is that it?" Severus queried with a raised eyebrow.

"It's the truth! Look, I don't know how he knew it, O.K.?! And if you didn't want this to happen then you shouldn't have told me in the first place should you?"

Severus felt a tremendous urge to curse Regulus into oblivion; partly due to the fact that Regulus was probably right. It had been a stupid idea, and one from which he would certainly learn from. Thankfully the spell that was now spreading across the school uncontrollably was not one of his most precious curses – to give away any of _those _would be downright idiocy.

"I would have suspected that something as complex as that jinx would have taken you a lot longer to learn," he said with a condescending smirk. Regulus looked rather affronted but said nothing. "The deal is off, Regulus. As I said, our association ends here. I will give you no more guidance and I expect nothing from you in return."

"Sounds _brilliant_," Regulus shot back.

"Ah, young Severus, there you are!"

Professor Slughorn had just made his way through a group of Hufflepuffs and was signalling to him. Regulus took the opportunity to make a haughty sniff at his former associate and stalked off in the direction of the Slytherin common room. Severus turned to face his Head of House.

"Professor."

"You'll be serving detention with the Gamekeeper this afternoon, boy. Apologies for the short notice, but I am rather swamped with third year essays today… 4 'o' clock sharp!"

_Wonderful. The day before the Potions exam and I'm shovelling unicorn manure in the Forbidden Forrest._

"Yes, sir." Severus replied glumly. There was no use fighting it, the teachers were ridiculously unfair when it came to allowing their students adequate study time.

"Jolly good. Best of luck with the Potions exam tomorrow, eh?" Slughorn beamed, giving him a pat on the back. Severus had by no means intended to noticeably recoil as the hand came toward him; instinct had taken hold of the reigns, like it always did in such physical situations.

Slughorn frowned ever so slightly, but made no remark of it. "Ah, not that you need it eh? Top of the class all throughout your years here," he grinned. "Bet your mother is mighty proud of you! Must be wonderful for Eileen to see her son rivalling her abilities! Shame she wasn't a Slytherin herself; all those Potions trophies going to Ravenclaw – I could barely stand it!" Slughorn gave him a wink at this last remark.

Talk of his mother's success had always felt like a stab in the chest and stomach simultaneously to Severus – it was a rather odd mixture of disappointment that she had never continued on her path to being a great witch, and yet a certain stab of pride accompanied it - that she had once been so talented and formidable. It was most unfortunate that Slughorn almost constantly felt the great need to remind him that he was his mother's son; as if he was challenging him to do better for Slytherins sake.

Severus nodded curtly to his Head of House and Potions master. "Indeed… well, I'd best be going, sir." He wanted desperately to get away from this conversation as soon as possible.

As he made his way towards his usual secluded spot by the lake he could not help but mentally disparage Slughorn. The man had several times made reference to Severus' talent (and, indeed, his mother's) and yet had the nerve to have left them both out of his ridiculous "Slug Club" of elitist morons with "special" connections in the Wizarding world. Himself, he could understand – Severus had little to no connection with anyone important, and that, it appeared, was a massive deciding factor of entry into the club. But if his mother was an expert in her field – who had indeed gone on to invent great things in the Potions arena a few years after her graduation – and was also very well-connected with the Princes at the time, why had she never received an invite? It stung him a little more than he would have expected. Though he did manage a small smirk at the thought of himself sipping elf-wine and attempting socialise and chuckle along with Slughorn's crème-de-la-crème of wizarding society…

_Yes, very likely._

He managed to shift his thoughts to his Potions exam quite easily. Content that he was bound to do better on his own than any of those idiots did together any day.

* * *

Watching various small groups of Slytherins busily studying for their NEWT's that afternoon was not fun. Severus spent as much time as he could going over the final preparation for the Potions exam before 4 o'clock rolled around all too soon. Regulus, who had completed all of his OWL's, lounged lazily in one of the deep green sofas, apparently in a one-way conversation with an evidently irritated Aurora Sinistra – a rather ashen seventh year girl whom Severus had known since his first sorting ceremony. She did not seem at all pleased with his company.

At the sight of Severus walking toward him, Regulus immediately drove his hand into the pocket containing his wand.

"Thank God," came the small but fractious sound from Aurora's lips. She graciously slipped herself a few meters down the couch to give Severus and Regulus ample room to fight.

"Severus we've been over this-" Regulus stammered in an almost pleading tone.

"Evan told me that Professor Alcor is waiting outside for you," Severus said. Not to Regulus, but to Aurora – who immediately jumped up from the couch with her Potions book tucked neatly under her arm.

"Oh, he is? Well then, if you'd both excuse me." The girl replied hastily, storming out of the Slytherin common room as quick as physically possible. Severus did not even spare a glance at Regulus before he followed her.

"I'm not covering for you ever again," Severus warned Aurora as they marched up the dungeon steps.

"No, I understand Severus, I'm sure such an act of shameless gallantry must have depleted your champion stores to almost zilch," she sniped. "Where are you heading on the night of the Potions exam anyway?"

"Detention with Hagrid."

Aurora threw her chocolate coloured head back and laughed. It took all of Severus's strength not to grimace. "Trust you to get yourself into trouble this end of the year… it wasn't that wanker again was it?"

"Yes, it was." Severus answered swiftly without realising that Aurora may not have actually been talking about the same person. "Potter and his gang of Gryffindors, I mean."

"Yes, him. Who else do you think I meant?"

"Well… he was certainly at the top of the list." Severus said with a smirk. It felt rather pleasant to talk to someone who was undeniably more on his level than Regulus ever was. He had quite forgotten the existence of all his seventh-year colleagues over the course of this year – save the Gryffindor batch who offered him nothing but migraines.

The two Slytherins continued similar conversation all the way down to Hagrid's hut; he knew that all she wanted was Potions tips for tomorrows NEWT exam, but in all truth, Severus did not mind. It felt refreshing to be next to a girl that wasn't Lily Evans for a change – the popular Gryffindor redhead, whom had gone from his childhood acquaintance, to his best friend, to a one-sided attraction, to someone he was now not even on speaking terms with, all in the course of a couple of years. It had been a brief, doomed infatuation from the start.

"I think it'd be safe for you return now," Severus observed as he came to a halt in front of the Gamekeeper's door. "Regulus would have probably moved on to the next girl…"

Aurora returned his statement with a cocked eyebrow and a rather appalled expression. He knew at once he had said the wrong thing; girls his age were masters at this, _especially_ Slytherin ones.

"Wha-? _Honestly, _why do I even bother _talking_ to boys…" she said with a great heavy sigh. "Regulus wasn't _flirting _with me, you pubescent git, though it'd be a right sight to see him try – I wouldn't have minded being handed a perfect excuse to blast that idiot through the wall."

"Sorry."

"I'm sure you are."

"What was he saying then?" Severus enquired, trying to sound as casual as possible. Again, he was hit with the '_you are indeed the biggest idiot I've ever had the displeasure of meeting' _glare.

"How, in all that is Holy, is that your business?"

He… didn't know quite how to react to that. His Langlock curse was looking bloody good right now.

As if right on cue, Hagrid stood in the doorway. "Hello ther' Mister Snape! Come in and I'll get yer'… Miss Sinistra? Yer not for detention as well are yer? I wish Slughorn would tell me these things-"

"No, I was just leaving." Aurora countered with a civil smile. "Just making sure my Potions buddy here was up to date on his study for tomorrow's NEWT. See you back in the common room, Severus; I think you'll be requiring that stimulus draught after all… Merlin knows you'll need it!"

Severus shot her a very unamused look as she walked away calling out the last parts of these words, before realising that there may have been tactic behind it.

"Yer Potions exam is tomorrow is it?" Hagrid frowned as Severus nodded. "Well, see, I was gonna have yer help me catch some pesky Harpies that've ruined some of the more ancient trees in this forest… but if yer like yer can just sit in me cabin and study? I know how important these exams are 'n all."

He was a compassionate being – there was no doubt about that. Hagrid was about the only person Severus knew whom he could not find fault with. Here he was, after being allowed to run back to the Slytherin common room and retrieve his books, sitting in front of Hagrid's warm fire and relaxing in the firm belief that he was bound to achieve Outstanding's in all his subjects. He made a mental note to repay Hagrid for this one day…

Two hours had gone by with lightning-like speed.

A big hand was shaking him awake… Severus blinked and took a few moments to remember where he was.

"Yer lucky I won' tell anyone about yer falling asleep on detention now!" Hagrid's booming voice came from above. Severus rubbed his eyes and realised there was ink all over his hands as he brought them back. Blast, he must've fallen asleep on top of his notes…

"Oh, ah, sorry about that" he apologised to the Gamekeeper. Hagrid only chuckled.

"S'okay lad. I know everyone in yer year is exhausted senseless... would yer like some tea before I send yer off?"

Tea sounded very good right now. It had been almost a year since Severus had proper tea as he had stayed at school over the Christmas holidays. He wasn't too sure that Hagrid's tea would be as proper as the Muggle kind, but he wasn't going to deny the offer.

"Thanks, Hagrid."

As Hagrid busied himself with the kettle, Severus began to gather up his books and notes.

"NEWT's are almost over, eh?" came Hagrid's voice from the small kitchen. "Any idea what yer wanna do after 'em, lad?"

"… no, nothing specific…" Severus felt it rather difficult voicing a reply. The thought of what Hagrid and his old teachers would think of him a couple of years from now was too tricky to dwell on. Hagrid came back out of the room with two bowl-sized cups of steaming liquid.

"Ah well, if yer do yer best I'm sure yer'll have the pick of the best jobs, eh?" he set the bowl-slash-cup's on the table and Severus nodded his thanks. The next few minutes were spent lazily listening to Hagrid's rather blasé stories about school and so-on; there was the inevitable occasional question about his home life that all adults seemed to relish in asking people his age, but nothing too incriminating.

Hagrid's giant oaf of a dog began to bark all of a sudden, prompting Hagrid to move to the window. He squinted into the dusk.

"Oh would yer know, it's Professor McGonagall! … Someone else too." Hagrid quipped cheerfully. He unlocked the door as Severus downed the rest of his surprisingly appetizing tea.

"Good evening, Hagrid" McGonagall greeted as she came up the stone steps. "Horace tells me that you've been supervising Mr. Snape for his detention. Is he here or is he heading back to his common room?"

"Oh no Professor, he's-"

"I'm here," Severus called from inside, his insides squirming from either hunger or apprehension - he did not know which. McGonagall poked her head through the door.

"Jus' havin' some tea before he headed off to dinner," Hagrid explained.

"I see. Well, Mr. Snape, there is someone to see you, it is a matter of apparent urgency."

_A visitor? Urgent? _

Severus insides were certainly squirming by this stage. He jumped up from the chair and hastily packed up his belongings.

_Please let nothing have happened… please…_

McGonagall raised her hand. "Actually I think it would be easier if I just let them in here to talk with you; they were adamant that they wanted to see you right away instead of waiting at the castle. Hagrid, if that's no bother?"

"Oh 'course not, Professor! I needed to go tend to me unicorns anyway."

"What's the matter? What's happened?!" Severus almost pleaded with McGonagall.

"It is not my place to ask, Mr. Snape. But they've passed our security checks… seeing that it is an issue of great importance… Hagrid and I will be outside if you need us."

She promptly backed out of the room to allow the visitor through the door. An aged but stately looking woman covered a dark green cloak stepped into the room. Severus had never before seen this person in his life… his heart plummeted into stomach. She could be an Auror… something must have happened at home… his worst nightmare was coming true.

The elderly woman surveyed him for a while – making him feel extremely uncomfortable; this, however, was followed by a look of sheer exhilaration upon her features. There was something… something familiar about her… something that, for lack of a better phrase, felt like home.

"Who are you?" Severus demanded.

The woman's hollow eyes bored into his. She smiled.

"My name is Serafina Prince. And you, I believe, are my only grandchild - Severus Snape."

~*~

**Thanks for all the reviews so far.**


	8. The Moment

**Title: **The Pureblood Prince

**Chapter Title: **The Moment

**By MystFatale (I had a name change ;) )**

**Disclaimer: **All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.

**AN: Thank you all so much for your nice reviews. Sorry this chapter took quite a while to get up. This was meant to be doubly as long but I decided to cut down the length substantially. So the next chapter shouldn't be too far around the corner :)**

* * *

_CHAPTER VIII: The Moment_

Severus couldn't quite comprehend what the woman had just said. All these years… he had never even seen his grandmother before. The enormity of what this sudden meeting would mean to him hadn't quite sunk in yet.

Mrs. Prince motioned to two of Hagrid's low chairs, though by the look on her face it appeared she would have preferred to stand in the doorway. "Shall we sit down and get better acquainted?"

"Why are you here?" Severus demanded, ignoring her request. Ever since he was a young child he had wanted to meet his mother's parents, he had never pushed the issue with his mother though – silly really, he guessed probably should have. He supposed the childlike trust one has that their mother was all-knowing and omnipotent had carried into his later years.

But now, being face-to-face with her, with the side of his family he always thought he would have belonged to much more than the Snape's, the harsh realisation of their past actions had hit him completely.

"I wanted to see my grandson for the first time," Mrs. Prince replied haughtily. "Is that so strange to you, boy?" She dusted off one of the low-slung chairs and sat gracefully upon it. Her grandson remained standing.

"Why now?"

"I wanted to have a proper look at you before you left Hogwarts. I don't suspect I'd get a chance if I left you leave this place and go back home to your parents."

"And that's really urgent, is it?"

Mrs. Prince shot him a wry smile… he didn't like the way she looked at him.

"You could say it was, yes. Please, sit down"

Severus decided he might as well.

For a few moments neither Severus nor the old lady spoke. What could he possibly say to her? She was a stranger to him, grandmother or not. Mrs. Prince certainly did not appear as uncomfortable; she was looking him up and down, occasionally cocking her head to one side as if to make sure he didn't transform into a completely different being at certain angles. After a few minutes, she appeared, not pleased with, but acceptant of his authenticity.

"Ah. I see you are a Slytherin, boy!" She finally spoke up with great zeal. "I am very proud. I too was a Slytherin, you know. No finer house… you'll be destined for great things."

"I will, will I?" came Severus's half-hearted reply. He certainly didn't take too well to strange old women waltzing into the school on a matter of urgency and telling him they were very proud of him.

"I am sure of it," came Mrs. Prince's reply. "You are a Prince, after all."

"So is mum."

He thought he ought to start testing the waters. The anger that had been bubbling up inside of him would not stay put forever. Mrs. Prince tensed up her hands, then relaxed them, and then repeated the same pattern several times over.

"She was once, child. Before she became a Muggle."

Severus wasn't sure if she had intended to voice the last part so audibly. "No, she married my idiot Muggle father - there's a difference."

He could instantly tell by the way in which the stranger looked at him that he should have kept his stupid mouth shut. "You don't like your father, boy? I should have guessed from the moment that your mother first started running off with that stinking Muggle youngster. Has he hurt you?" The fury in her eyes was irrefutable.

"Not _me," _Severus snapped angrily. "The only reason I live in that hellhole is to look after my mother, _your _daughter. The one who you haven't visited ever since I've been alive!"

"That was her choice, not mine."

"It's _your _choice!"

"_It has been my choice to seek you out!" _Mrs. Prince spat back with equal vehemence. "Your mother barred me from your household eighteen years ago! You are my only grandchild – the last remaining heir to the Prince line! No matter what your blood… paternal heritage is, you are still half a Prince. Soon to be the only one left."

This sudden outburst seemed to take a lot out of her. Nothing she was saying was new to Severus; it simply created more questions, and more anger.

"I have waited eighteen years for you to land on my front door. You never have. Therefore, I must take things into my own hands from here on in."

"What is it that you want, exactly?" Severus asked yet again. "You appear to have a talent for evading fundamental questions. Doesn't work too well in the company of another Slytherin, I can assure you."

"I want you to stay with your grandfather and I over the holidays. Your mother need not know anything about it; tell your parents you shall be at one of your school friends homes…" Mrs. Prince explained with an infuriating air of confidence. "Let me train you to be the wizard you deserve to be."

"Wasn't that what all this Hogwarts business was for?" Severus smugly retorted. To his surprise, the woman gave a bitter laugh.

"I am talking of the magic of, say, the _restricted section_ kind. You want to stop what your bastard Muggle father is doing to your mother? I can show you ways to punish him in which you've only dreamed, Severus…."

"I have my own ways, thank you." Severus said, visibly unimpressed. He bit one of his fingernails lazily. "I assure you that nothing you could teach me would be anything new, or anything I would not know."

Mrs. Prince deliberated this. When she spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper – but it was pure poison.

"Have you ever heard of the Death Eaters, Severus?"

~*~

* * *

~*~

_Eileen Prince was coming home for the last time, and she was very excited. As she sat in one of the carriages of the Hogwarts Express, her arm resting on the cold windowsill, watching the summer rain hit the pane gently – she thought she may have felt just a tinge of sadness from leaving Hogwarts forever… but she didn't, not really. She merely felt greatly unbound._

"_So who's going to Peter's graduation party? His family have a castle in Scotland! Imagine that!" Lucy Fawcett, a fellow seventh year Ravenclaw with golden blonde hair and one of Eileen's closest friends, stated excitedly. _

"_Wouldn't pass up that opportunity!" Catriona McKinnon piped. "Are you dragging your boyfriend along, Luce?"_

"_Of course. Who else is going hold my travelling cloak while I'm dancing with you girls?" _

"_What else are wizards for?"_

_The two girls giggled and continued gossiping about the apparent 'party of the year' for the graduating witches and wizards for most of the remainder of the journey. Eileen knew they would force her to go… she supposed she might as well; it beat sharing the same space with the monster of a father she had any day._

_Not that she would have to stand him much longer._

_As usual, her parents were waiting at Kings Cross when she arrived. Eileen thought they needn't have bothered… she could apparate herself where she pleased and hardly needed parental escort. She was happy to see her mother, though._

"_I'll send you an owl in a couple of days, Leeny." Lucy said, giving her friend a tight hug. "Promise me we'll never lose touch… ok?"_

"_You were my closest friend at school, Luce – I'm afraid you're stuck with me now." Eileen replied with a friendly smile. If there was one thing she would miss about Hogwarts, it was her Ravenclaw friends. With another quick hug and a wave, Lucy had apparated. _

"_Hello, darling. I've missed you." _

_Her mother, who had been waiting patiently for Eileen to say goodbye to all her friends, had now drawn her daughter into a gentle embrace with one arm. She still felt as delicate as ever. "Hello, mother." _

_Atticus Prince wasn't nearly as welcoming but Eileen couldn't falter his effort. Apart from the short nod of greeting at Platform 9 ¾ he did not speak until the three Princes apparated into their West Sussex manor. _

"_I believe congratulations are in order?" he said in usual stiff and supercilious way after Eileen had packed away her belongings and had settled in their living room. "Top Potions student in the school for over a hundred years, according to Headmaster Dippet. I spoke to him at a Ministry meeting."_

"_Yes, well." Eileen replied, rather uninterested at Atticus's attempt to praise. Her mind was swimming on pleasant thoughts of her new founded freedom. _

_Time seemed to drag on forever as she waited for six o' clock to roll around. Eileen busied herself by sorting away all the potions she had brought back with her – many her own inventions, which needed testing. Her magical equipment, books, potions and various knick-knacks lay all over the manor; her parents encouraged her to use the better resources available to better herself as a witch. _

_Eileen had never known life outside of this colossal, cold manor. No matter how much she tried to deny it, she knew that she was a spoiled rich girl who had always been given ample resources to excel. It was a thought that constantly got to Eileen, it made her feel very unworthy of her accomplishments. The only way she could ever get rid of this horrible feeling was to leave this house for good. _

_And by inventing things._

_When she invented, ample resources meant nothing if she didn't have good theories and a curious mind. Every accomplishment in this area was something Eileen knew was all thanks to her, and not her parent's money. But, if she had been honest with herself, which she wasn't at this present time, she would have accepted the fact that the wizarding world was leaving her with less and less reverence for it as the years passed. It was simply all too easy, and all too familiar. _

_Six o' clock made its sluggish way around eventually. Eileen, who usually did not like using spells for everyday mundane tasks, was forced to use a drying spell on her hip-length black hair as she had spent far too long in the bath. She quickly pulled on a pale blue dress and made herself as decent as possible, and was pulling out some of the more painful looking high heels from the very back of her wardrobe (which her mother had bought her and she had refused to wear) as the doorbell rang._

"_Missy!" her father called from downstairs. "Door!"_

"_Don't bother!" Eileen shouted back as she rushed down the stairs. For two people who were so usually so motivated and industrious in their work, her parents were atrociously lazy with household tasks – relying on their poor overworked house elf for everything. _

_She managed to rush out of the door and was hurrying down the driveway with her female companion by the time her mother appeared at the front entrance. Serafina could verbalise displeasure all she wanted, but Eileen could safely pretend not to hear her – the night was off to a good start!_

"_Bye, mother! Yes, I love you too!" Eileen shouted with a comic wave. The Muggle girl running next to her hit her playfully on the shoulder._

_~*~_

_

* * *

~*~  
_

Severus stumbled back into the Slytherin common room a good two hours after he had planned. Potions exam rather forgotten, he threw himself into one of the green leather chairs by the fireplace – feeling far too lost in thought to give any attention in positioning himself properly.

She shouldn't have come… that was for certain. He had told her so in the end, but only after hearing what it was she had to say. Severus wondered now if that had been the right course of action. He felt as if he had betrayed the only person who had possibly ever loved him; or at least pretended to.

He _should _have refused to speak to the old woman completely.

But he didn't. And from the ideas and promises and hopes that she had now implanted into his mind - he knew he would live to regret it…. having no choice than to suffer had always seemed like the worst possible scenario to Severus; but now, now he had been _presented _with a choice. A choice he refused. Suddenly, the feeling of having nothing paled in comparison to the feeling that he had just knowingly turned down everything.

"Oi!"

Severus nearly jumped out of his skin. He gave a quick unwelcome jolt before whipping around to see Aurora standing behind him, hands on her hips and looking very intrigued indeed.

"_What?" _

"What do you mean 'what'?! Where on earth have you been? It's nine thirty!"

"I don't have to be studying in the common room all the time, you know."

"No, I'm sure you'd much rather get caught by Filch studying in a dark, _closed_ library." Aurora said, rolling her eyes… Severus had noticed she did that quite a lot. She took a seat opposite him. "Did you even manage to study for this tiny little trivial thing called the Potions NEWT exam tomorrow?"

"As a matter of fact, Hagrid let me study for my detention." Severus replied lazily. The exam was the last thing on his mind at present.

Aurora gave him a satisfied smile. "My plan worked then."

"Yes, you are a _mastermind _at blatantly bringing Hagrid up to date with our exam schedule. I shall build you a shrine."

"Oh, the galleons I would pay to see you dancing around a shrine, Snape. You could make a fortune."

"Can't you study anywhere but near me?"

Aurora omitted a heavy sarcastic sigh. "But I wanted to be as close to you as humanely possible!"

"Hilarity is surely your middle name, Sinistra."

"Actually, it's Shobha. But I'm sure if I wasn't cursed with primarily Hindu speaking parents then Hilarity may have made an appearance." Aurora replied over her textbook, not bothering to look him in the eye. "Anyway, it's too cold up in the dormitories… and seeing that the only other girl doing the NEWT exam is dimmer than a black hole that's been covered in black paint and thrown into the back of a closet - well, compared to us anyway - then I thought I might as well go through some notes with you."

"Just how long _did_ you wait to throw the black hole joke out there?"

Aurora shrugged. "I've been working on it since you left."

Severus could not help but smirk. He supposed that studying for this final exam would, for the time being, distract him of thoughts of his grandmother's promises. He ripped Aurora's notes out of her hand. "Alright, seeing as you _did _give me a lot of physics notes for our Astronomy exam - what is it you want to go over? … Ah, well, see, this is wrong for a start…"

~*~

* * *

~*~

_The roaring Muggle bar in the middle of London was nothing and everything like Eileen had always dreamed it would be. Full of life and laughter and dancing and joy. There was nothing cold, nothing genteel about it; Eileen liked that. For the first hour and a bit she and her Muggle friend had a few drinks, tried to have a decent chat over the loud music crackling over them (while they failed at the latter, it hardly bothered them) – all which ended in the two of them dancing with each other in a more secluded section of the dance floor. _

_Eileen had not laughed so much in years. Freedom had suddenly been handed to her – and not on a silver platter._

"_I need to sit down a while, Aofie!" she shouted over the music while limping over to a barstool. Aofie, her blonde Muggle best friend, continued to dance with various bar occupants, clearly a tad more inebriated then Eileen herself. Whatever would her parents say?_

"_What'll it be, love?" the bartender asked loudly. Eileen gaped at him for a while. She had never ordered a Muggle drink before… without Aofie there to harp in before her, she was rather stuck._

"_Um… a red wine, please." … She was sure that Muggles drunk wine. Didn't they? _

"_Merlot?"_

"_That's fine."_

_Handing the bartender the Muggle money that she had kept in her room after exchanging it in her fourth year (she had wanted to see what it looked like and had never really found any use for it until now), sipping on her merlot and watching the Muggles, Eileen could not help but feel closed off from them all. She felt a certain stab of jealousy; that she could never truly fit in with them. She supposed she could study them… find out as much as she could for the time being…_

_There was a loud crash near the jukebox. The bartender suddenly quipped up: "OI! YOU LOT! I've warned you before!". Eileen turned around to see four or five young men dressed in very scruffy looking clothes laughing and raising their beer glasses. _

"_Sorry mate! See here now Brian – I told yer about trying to boogie with the music machine!". The men all roared with laughter. Eileen tried to stifle a smile, but it was no use. She suddenly found herself quietly giggling along with the rest of them._

_One of the taller men of the group scanned the bar and had abruptly met her eye. At the sight of him grinning back at her, Eileen looked away and hastily rearranged her smile into a pout, something she assumed looked much more ridiculous. _

_He had managed to place himself rather clumsily on the stool next to her before she could do anything else. _

"_Want another drink, ma'am?"_

_Eileen sloshed her half full glass at him. "No thank you. I've had more than enough, I can tell you."_

_He was a very rugged looking man, Eileen thought, there was absolutely nothing neat about him at all – scruffy brown hair, unshaven beared, an ancient looking leather jacket… and try as she might, she couldn't help feeling drawn to it._

"_Ah ma'am, when you're dancing with jukeboxes you've had enough," the man grinned. The corner of Eileen's lips rose slightly. "What's your name if you don't mind me askin'?"_

_Her mother's teachings suddenly broke into her mind. "Well, that's a tad impertinent of you. A proper man would tell me his first."_

_The way in which he stared at her showed her that, while he understood what she had meant, he had obviously not expected her to be so well mannered. _

"_Sorry miss, but I ain't a proper man," he said. With that lop-sided smirk and that Yorkshire accent, Eileen suddenly felt very weak at the knees… 'How ludicrous!' she thought. The man held out of his hand, "Snape."_

"_Pardon me?"_

"_My name. Tobias Snape."_

"_Oh," Eileen replied, flushing as she took his rough hand. "Prince. Eileen Prince."_

"_That's a pretty name, ma'am," the man called Tobias Snape said as he kept a hold of her much tinier and frailer hand. "Would yer like to dance, Miss Prince?"_

_Eileen almost shot her head around the bar; looking for any other women called Miss Prince that Tobias might have been referring to (she was hardly used to invitations like these). "Um, well, my friend is probably ready to go home…", that wasn't a lie. Aofie was currently pulling on her coat and chatting away to one of Tobias Snape's equally scruffy friends. Eileen couldn't help but feel a little disappointed._

_Tobias leant a little closer to her, which made her feel somewhat uncomfortable seeing as though they had only just met. "I'm the driver tonight yer know, haven't a drink all evenin' me. I can take yer home later."_

_Whether it was the alcohol or the man, Eileen was sure. But she agreed to it. She could not even imagine the throttling her father would have given her (behind her mothers back of course) for doing such a stupid thing. Though after learning that Aofie was going home with one of Tobias's friends, she relaxed a little._

_He had made her feel special that night. The way he danced with her, the way he wrapped his strong arms around her slight frame. He was so different from the wizard boys at school – but then Eileen had always been attracted to Muggle men. It was the only option, really, since declaring that she would never marry a wizarding man. Not after… everything that had happened. _

_Tobias leant in close to her long, pale neck. His breath sent shivers down her spine and Eileen closed her eyes, relishing in it, for it was sure not to last forever. She knew she should have stopped right where she was and run outside to apparate - before her parents became unforgivably furious with her, before she did something stupid with this Muggle; but Eileen had never been held, never been whispered to like she was truly wanted, never felt the lips of another's upon her neck... such chapped, strong lips… every breath he made tickled the hairs on her neck and made the rest stand on end._

"_You want to go for a drive?" his voice resonated in her ear after a few minutes of bliss._

"_I would like that, yes," Eileen whispered back._

_~*~_


	9. The Prince Family Tales

Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews. If I haven't got back to them personally, I apologise and will try to reply to every review henceforth ;) Uni's been busy and getting more and more hectic, so I'm sorry if the next chapter is a bit late. Reviews are appreciated but certainly not expected. Enjoy.

**The Pureblood Prince**

**by mystfatale.  
**

**Disclaimer: **All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.

**Warnings: **A few scenes of domestic abuse in this chapter.

* * *

_CHAPTER IX: The Prince Family Tales_

_From the point in which this meeting ended, she would look back on this moment as a stupid idea. As something she should have known better than to agree to, to surrender to… but there was something about him, about this man who had pushed down the walls that her family had worked so hard to keep up around her… something… it was a power he had that she would never escape from until her dying day. _

_Eileen could never have imagined what that power, that something, would have eventuated into. Not back then._

_She was, obviously, confidant enough (back then at least) to trust that she would be adequately prepared to defend herself should something untoward happen. This is why she had no qualms in accompanying Tobias back to his shared but presently vacated London council flat a week after their first meeting. They had arranged to meet in the bar once again… Eileen wasn't very hopeful that he would remain true to his word, but surprisingly enough, he was sitting there as she entered the bar, waiting for her. _

He's waiting for me… me and only me.

_Eileen made a point tonight not to drink any more but one glass of the Muggle Merlot tonight. That way she would be sure that it wasn't the alcohol making decisions for her. Sure enough, the feelings that she had for Tobias remained as potent as they did the last Friday night. They laughed and talked and cuddled on the couch of the damp, run-down flat into the early hours of the morning, drinking cold tea that they had forgotten to pour in the mad, lustful rush of getting lost in each other. Eileen had never felt so happy. _

"_Oh - that was – disgusting - I loved it -" Eileen laughed after placing the empty, chipped mug upon the table – which was harder than it looked while kissing another person frantically._

"_Mmm - you're the first woman - to compliment and insult my tea - at the same time, Eileen. Such - a way with words." Tobias replied, considerably out of breath. Eileen leant her head back and smiled. As Tobias continued kissing the nape of her slender neck, sending cool shivers down her spine, Eileen looked around in wonder at all the various Muggle contraptions that his living room held. They seemed run-down, but that made Eileen love them all the more. There was a dusty looking grey box in the corner with one single dial and two protruding wires on it that caught her eye. She wondered what it could be, and also just how ingenious Muggles really were. Everything here appeared well used and well loved, quite unlike the intact coldness of the 'Maison de Prince'._

_For the next few moments Eileen had become so lost in pleasurable thought that the feeling of a warm hand caressing her inner thighs merely added to the blissful sensation. All sensible thought came back to her, however, when the hand urged to move further. _

"_No," Eileen's eyes snapped open – her hand snapping towards his with equal rapidity. "Not here, not tonight, Tobias."_

_Much to her delight, Tobias immediately leapt off the couch… _

"_Sorry, I just… I thought, well, you looked like –"_

_Eileen wrapped her arms around him. He had certainly proved his worth to her. "Tobias Snape…" she whispered, lightly kissing the back of his neck. "I'm afraid I like you too much."_

_Every word was true. She was __**very **__afraid that she liked him too much._

_Without warning, he wrapped his arms around her frail body, encasing her in a cacoon of safety and security. Eileen felt her body almost shutdown in relaxation. All those years she dreamed of being kept safe by someone…_

"_I'll see you soon tho' won't I?" he asked as she nestled into his neck. "There's somethin' about you Eileen. I wouldn't be very happy at all if I didn' see you again."_

_Eileen pressed her lips to Tobias's once again. "Of course you'll see me. I'll meet you here. Tomorrow if you'd like."_

"_What if I meet you at yours? Be a right sight better than this pigsty of a place…"_

"_No." Eileen said firmly, holding his head in her hands. "It's my… parents. They wouldn't approve of my running around with anyone but a family friend. Best if I make my way here."_

"_Alone?"_

_Eileen gave a faint a smile. "I can take care of myself. Promise. But for now, just before I head off home…" she walked over the to grey box with the wires. "Can you operate this for me?"_

_Tobias followed her with a very amused expression on his face. "What, the television? Well, I suppose. I could make us some more tea."_

A telly vision…?

"_Yes, put on this telly vision" Eileen nodded enthusiastically, never considering once how very strange she must've sounded to this Muggle. Tobias flicked the switch and she opened her eyes wide in amazement… it was exactly like a photo… only the people in the photos didn't just move around in their frame, stuck inside four walls – no, scenes kept changing before her eyes… different black and white people kept appearing and talking. There was laughter in the background._

"_Amazing…" Eileen whispered in absolute bewilderment. All her life she had known that Muggles were an miraculous people, it was a world that she had obsessed about ever since learning about its existence, but never knew that such people, without an ounce of magic within them, were capable of such inventions, such creativity. _

"_You mean to tell me your fam'ly don' have a television?" Tobias said with a laugh, cutting into Eileen's current hypnotic state. "Thought you'd have a much better one than this old box n' all. Only have one 'cause Jim was given one for his birthday… rich Ma up near Edinburgh you see."_

"_No… I… well, my parents are somewhat afraid of the future, shall we say." Eileen replied, far too beguiled by the funny Muggles on this telly vision contraption to truly register what she was saying to Tobias. _

"_Ah, I see. Well you just sit there and I'll make us summore tea before I drop you off."_

"_Mmm," Eileen mumbled, wide-eyed. _

_As she sat on the floor, inches from this incredibly piece of Muggle genius, as she heard the faint noises of Tobias busying himself with washing up their mugs, Eileen felt the first tears well up in her eyes. She would've given anything to stay here and never go back to the wizarding world. She wanted to learn everything possible about them, wanted to ask Tobias so many questions… of course, her stringent mother had forbidden her from taking any Muggle studies classes at Hogwarts, but she would stay up into the early hours of the morning reading all the Muggle books she could, locked away in the Ravenclaw dormitories. She collected bits and pieces of the Muggle world whenever she came across them – Muggle money, Muggle bus tickets, she had even once gone to Aofie's "ballet" recital once – and had enthused about how beautiful it was to her friend so much that Aofie had bought her a book on the art for her 15th birthday. It was a book that she kept hidden in a locked box at the very back of her wardrobe, amoungst all the other wonderful Muggle objects. _

_She recalled the still pictures in her book… remembering how dazzled she was by the dancing Muggle girls – spinning purely on the strength of their toes (or 'en pointe' as she had learnt from the book). The promise that she made to herself, that one day she would dance just like them, had not come true. _

_Eileen hastily wiped away her now freely flowing tears before the Muggle man, who would never know just how lucky he was, came back into the room._

_After months of perfect bliss with Tobias, Eileen knew that something was certain to come crashing down… and unfortunately, as in the world of academia, she found herself hardly ever wrong._

_When she came down the cold, tiled steps of Prince Manor one morning after spending the night with her wholly adored Muggle man (trying very hard not to show how happy she was save interrogation by her father), she found a much different sort of man shoot a glare at her from the sitting room. In one swift move, Atticus Prince had come to the foot of the staircase to meet his daughter, still clothed in her nightdress. _

"_Had a good time, last night did we?" he barked. "Didn't think to tell your mother or I where you were off to?!"_

"_I'm eighteen now," Eileen replied as calmly as possible. "I came of age a year ago last July. I can take care of myself."_

"_While you're under my roof it makes no difference if you are eighteen or twelve! YOU ARE TO TELL ME WHERE YOU ARE OFF TO YOU MUGGLE LOVING, GOOD FOR NOTHING LITTLE TRAMP!"_

_At the sight of his raised wand, Eileen turned on him and rushed back up the stairs. Of course, she knew he would follow, but she really had no-where else to go… if she apparated, probability suggested that Tobias might not take so kindly to her demands that she move in with him immediately._

_Before she could get to her wand, Atticus had grabbed her by the nightie and spun her round to face him. _

"_You should be thankful that your mollycoddling mother isn't here to see what a slut her daughter has turned into. Running around with filthy Muggle men all night. Don't think I don't know what sort of disgusting acts you get yourself up to!"_

"_Have you forgotten that mother used to do the same thing on a much grander scale?" Eileen bit back; she was not one to back down from a challenge, regardless of how many bruises and cuts it had given her over the past. You didn't become Captain of the Hogwarts Gobstones Club to sit back and shy away from competition. _

_Atticus did not use his wand; he rarely did when dealing with her. A swift hand hit her on the face. _

"_HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT? COMING FROM A SLUT LIKE YOU!"_

_Eileen and her father struggled with each other on the landing, but he was far too burly for her. He shoved her against the frame of one of the doors; Eileen hit her head so hard that the room started to spin. Seeing his daughter lying against the frame, her hand on her throbbing head did not deter Atticus, did not garner even the slightest bit of sympathy. He grabbed her nightie with his furiously shaking hands and with one, swift stroke, ripped off the entire garment, leaving her naked from the waist up. Eileen screamed and pulled the remainder of her nightie up to her breasts, but the damage had already been done._

"_Look at you, you little Muggle loving whore. Look at what you've been reduced to." Her father spat viciously at his daughter, as if her actions alone were utterly to blame for the pitiful state she now found herself in. "I've put up with your trouble for years, but no more. If you want to live under __**my **__house, you will abide by __**my **__rules."_

_Eileen didn't flinch. No, she was stronger than him, better than him. Without blinking, she rose to her feet – and even though her body was barely covered with the tattered remains of her nightdress, she pulsed with an air of self-confidence worthy of her mothers envy. _

"_It appears to me that you're labouring under the delusion that I actually give a damn." She bit back proudly. "Oh yes, I've had everything money could buy! Clothes, books, toys, the best of the best. Anything to shut me up, anything to make __**me **__feel like an ungrateful child and that I should actually __**thank **__you for all the disgusting things you've done to me!"_

"_You can't prove anything, sunshine." Atticus replied in an extremely speedy fashion. Eileen couldn't believe it. He was actually more concerned with people finding him out than the wrongdoings he had done to his own flesh and blood. _

"_I don't want to prove anything anymore." Eileen said, completely exasperated. "I've finished. I'll wait until mother gets back home and I'll be saying my goodbyes."_

Tobias will understand…

"_Yes, I am sure you will find a very profitable career selling out your sickly body to Muggles on the street corner. Eileen Prince, the biggest hussy in town. How proud you have made you family, my dear."_

_With one final strike, Atticus Prince turned on the spot and walked away leaving his daughter to weep on the floor - as if merely forgetting where he was supposed to be going. _

Tobias will understand… _was all she could tell herself._

Tobias will understand.

~*~

* * *

_~*~_

It was a good as meeting as Serafina could have hoped. She had not expected him to be welcoming… what kind of son would, after believing his own mother to be abandoned by her family? No. It was clear that Eileen had meant all that she said; because it was obvious that he loved her dearly.

Considering that brute of a husband, she was possibly the only person whom dear Severus had ever loved.

She had been escorted from the school grounds by the deputy headmistress – someone by the name of McGonagall - whom Serafina recognised from her own Hogwarts generation as one of the younger Gryffindor prefects when Serafina herself was a Slytherin prefect in seventh year. Serafina could tell by the way in which this McGonagall woman shot sideways glances at her that she was not well trusted.

It was no skin of her nose, obviously. As if the Hogwarts faculty could possibly comprehend the enormous task at Serafina Prince's hands. The minute that she apparated into West Sussex, Serafina hastily ran down the vast driveway of her mansion, her black boots clipping loudly on the wet cobblestones.

Her aged house elf was waiting for her at the archway. "How was Mistresses trip?" the diminutive little elf asked.

"Do not ask me questions, Missy." Serafina replied without looking the elf in her eyes. She handed Missy her travelling cloak and stepped into the dining room, where she found her husband in the same place that she had left him.

"Did you find him?" Atticus mumbled. He was now nothing more than a shrivelled up piece of human being now – old and sour. Serafina's lip curled in repugnance, she sacrificed a great deal when she became his very young wife.

"Yes, my darling" she replied loudly, walking over to him and placing her hand around his shoulder. "He is powerful… the Muggle in him has certainly not dampened his powers; though his face is the splitting image of his fathers."

Atticus grumbled at the mention of this last piece of information.

"He will make his way here, of that I have no doubt," Serafina continued. "It seems I was right about that Muggle. He has led our daughter completely away from magic. I dare say she barely holds any magic ability in her anymore… the Muggle has beaten it out of her. Did you hear, Atticus? Our only child has been beaten."

She sat opposite her ancient looking husband, who either had not heard her, or refused to comment, and took out a long, silver cigarette which she lit with her wand. After about fifteen minutes of silence in which Serafina leant against her chair, puffing silvery smoke at the ceiling and contemplating her meeting with her grandson – Atticus stopped wheezing and spoke up.

"She's a lost cause, always has been. What kind of witch allows herself to be hit? And by a Muggle."

Serafina took a long inhalation of smoke. Without it, she might have done something rather unbecoming.

"I am positive that her son can make her see the error of her ways, if I cannot. He will succeed where I have failed."

"What makes you so sure, Sera?" Atticus strained. "For all we know he could be as violent and brutish as her animal of a husband. And he is more of a danger to her. He is a wizard… a half-blood, yes, but still a wizard."

Serafina had never heard her elderly husband say so much in a day, let alone a few minutes.

"He loves her, I can tell." She explained. "He refused my invitation because he felt he was betraying her."

Atticus began to cough and splutter in shock. She merely glanced away.

"He – said – NO?" Atticus rasped, hunched over from that rather unpleasant kick in the teeth. "Sera, you made a promise to… to _him!" _

"_I know I did, you geriatric imbecile!" _Serafina finally snapped. How dare he insult her effort? After he made none at all! "Severus _will _join the Death Eaters. Of that I have no doubt. His loyalty to his mother and hatred of his father will bring him to me eventually, and ultimately to the Dark Lord. Do not even think of questioning my ability to perform this task!"

"You have never failed before Sera, but I'm afraid you may be pushing it!"

"I have more to lose than you if I don't fulfil this promise, remember that my dear! I made this promise to the Dark Lord, not you. I am the one who wants to see my daughter in her rightful place again… you would simply let her suffer."

Atticus looked as if he were about to protest, but restrained himself – which infuriated Serafina, who at least expected him to lie about wanting his only child to be safe from harm.

"You know the only reason I sought the Dark Lord out was for Eileen," Serafina said in less than a whisper – she was not even sure that her husband could hear her, but it didn't matter. "I would not put myself in front of the radars of death if it were not for something that would kill me anyway if it did not come to fruition. The only way is to erase the Muggles from her life…"

She caught sight of the leather chair in the corner of the room, where she used to cuddle her daughter whenever she had cried.

"We have to do this…" Serafina continued to herself. "I cannot fail her…"

~*~

* * *

~*~

The Mark began to burn… he answered its call dutifully.

"My Lord, I came as soon as I could."

A tall man cloaked in shadow stood at the opposite side of the pond that separated them; he did not turn to face the other man who had apparated before him.

"Not soon enough, Lucius. I trust whatever duty kept you from me for more than an hour was a matter of life-or-death."

The man called Lucius Malfoy swallowed tensely. "I was… momentarily preoccupied, my Lord. I swear to you that if I have could have avoided it, I would."

The elegant, blonde-haired man drew comfort in the fact that he was, in all truth, not deceitful in this avowal. He could not have avoided the affections of Narcissa Black… he failed to see what man could.

"You have not impressed me today - nor any time of late, Lucius" the cloaked man spat. "But I am a merciful Lord. I shall give you chance to redeem yourself with a task I have set for you…"

"Anything, my Dark Lord…"

"In a few days time the next generation of wizards will be waiting in the wings, to join our ranks. I am giving you the task, Lucius, of ensuring that they find their way… safely… into our nest. I have two or three particulars in mind that I would like you to pay special attention to."

Lucius nodded, feeling the sting of his master's gaze upon him even though the two men were not looking into each other's eyes. The Dark Lord turned slowly to face his follower – his whitewashed face appeared contorted in the moonlight.

"Evan Rosier should not be difficult in tracking," the Dark Lord informed him. "He and a few others have already been working from within. I already have my followers in contact with them. Go to his residence the night that he returns from Dumbledore's school and formally invite him to his final initiation. His family will be thankful of it."

"I will, my Lord."

"However, Lucius, before he leaves Dumbledore's clutches – you must ensure that Rosier performs one last task for me from within that school…"

"Yes…?"

"I have recently received news from a reliable source that a seventh-year Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape is somewhat _hesitant _to join us. I want you to instruct Rosier to boast about his initiation in front of the boy. I want make him feel isolated. I want Rosier to make the boy feel unwanted by me to increase his desire to join us. You are to speak of this to no-one."

The name struck Lucius like a tonne of bricks.

"Snape, my Lord? I knew him. Talented, yes, but he is not-"

"Talent that could greatly benefit our cause. But that is not the only reason I require his services."

"Forgive me for seeming intrusive my Lord, but Severus Snape…" Lucius cleared his throat tentatively. "He is not of pureblood heritage. Snape is not a wizarding name; his father is Muggle."

"Do you not think I already know this, Lucius? Do you take me, the Dark Lord, for an ignoramus!?" Lord Voldemort hissed viciously, causing his servant to back into the shadows ever so slightly – pleading "no, my Lord, no! Of course not…! I merely-"

"His family, his wizarding family, are one of the oldest and most powerful pureblood lines since your own and the Black's. Having the Prince's as followers to our cause would be greatly beneficial. Indeed, Snape's own grandmother is not only a Prince by marriage, but a Black by blood. Your future wife's great-aunt, no less!"

Lucius positively jolted in disbelief. That didn't sound quite right. No, it didn't sound right at all… but his Master could see through the lies of everyone… did this mean that Severus's very own grandmother was related to Narcissa? He would have to talk to his fiancé about this…

"Are you sure that it is her, my Lord…? I have never heard of…"

Lord Voldemort's otherworldly eyes sliced into Lucius. He did not need to utter a rejoinder, the malevolence in his eyes told him more than enough. Lucius backed down.

"From the reports that Rosier has been giving my Death Eaters from within the castle, Severus Snape has proven himself to be an influential wizard. His skills in Potions could be of a vital assistance to us. It is clear that any Muggle blood within him is not hindering his magical abilities a single iota." The Dark Lord began to pace back and forth, causing Lucius to tense every time he turned towards him. "However, his mere talent is inconsequential compared to the powerful allies we can make out of the Princes were he to join us."

"And Severus Snape would be tied to you forever, my Lord, if you held threats against his family."

Voldemort gave an acidic laugh. "How perfect a situation it would be, my slippery friend! How perfect! You know his mother was at Hogwarts with me, Lucius, a particularly ordinary Ravenclaw schoolgirl with naught to offer apart from her name. Nothing more than an expendable piece of Muggle loving meat… how effortless it would be to murder her in front of her own sons eyes if he ever thought to desert me!"

"So, you would let his blood-traitor mother survive, my Lord? As leverage?"

"Only so long as I require her. You see, my friend, Serafina Prince has made an Unbreakable Vow with me – that she will take her grandson in and train him in the ways of the Death Eaters. She believes, as Severus will believe, that his joining us is the only way they shall ever get rid of his Muggle father. Proof of the foolishness of love!"

Lucius suddenly recalled something spoken earlier.

"But, my Lord, did you not just tell me that Severus Snape has refused us? Does that not mean that Serafina Prince has failed and therefore… well, she would be dead by now, no?"

"The deadline has not passed yet, foolish servant." Voldemort spat. "It will take time for him to come to the realisation that he has no choice but to join us. By my orders, Serafina Prince has recently implanted promises into his head – promises from me that, if he were to offer his loyalty, would ensure that his Muggle father would perish and that his dear mother would be safe from all harm. A promise that I will create a paradise for her in which she would be protected and given the opportunity to be truly loved."

"And you intend to create this… _paradise_, my Lord?"

Another icy laugh.

"I have no intention of doing anything of the sort! A blood traitor deserves nothing more than unbearable agony, not rapture! No; pleasurable lies should be enough for the Half-Blood and the Princes to give into my every whim. Remember, Lucius, the blood traitor is nothing more than a piece of bait to us – of this you must tell no one. As long as I do not kill her, I may do anything to her I wish. Her mongrel son and pureblood family will remain forever loyal to me… else…"

He snapped his wand toward a disturbance in the distance. A jet of green lightning shot towards the noise – lighting up the target as it did so. A young deer dropped to the ground, lifeless, in front of their eyes.

~*~


	10. Telescopes and Greasy Bats

**The Pureblood Prince**

**By mystfatale.  
**

**Disclaimer: **All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.

**Notes: **Thanks so much for all the wonderful and constructive reviews. I hope you continue enjoying this story as much as I am in love with writing it. Sorry for the delay in this one... uni is now into full-swing, unfortunately. This chapter is a bit less all-over-the-place than the others, but there is method to this madness, I promise ;)

Enjoy.

* * *

_CHAPTER X: Telescopes and Greasy Bats_

"God _damn it!"_

_Damn it all!_

Severus aggressively threw an ancient looking volume of _Advanced Potions Making _(which was definitely not his own) across the Potions classroom where it hit the stone wall and broke effortlessly in half at the binding. He had spent the last day of freedom that he would ever have, rushing around the school searching for a 50 year-old hardback. Superb.

_Give up, Severus. Just give it up._

The thought of what would happen if anyone found that book… his insides squirmed at the thought. No one could possible make the connection that it was his, would they? No. The majority of Hogwarts students, and indeed staff, were such self-obsessed dolts that they wouldn't even think twice about who owned the book with all the dark curses in it. Well, maybe all except Dumbledore.

His very own _Levicorpus _jinx had now become so popular thanks to idiot Potter and his womanising mob of imbeciles, that practically everyone in the school was now using it merely to pass the time. Something suddenly clicked within his ever-spinning mind… if Regulus was being honest to him, that he didn't share the curse with anyone, then maybe…

He had to find Potter.

That was, if Evan Rosier wasn't currently blocking the way out of the Potions classroom, the inbred git.

"What the devil are you doing in here?" Rosier questioned in that permanently irritating aristocratic tone of his.

Severus closed the cupboard swiftly. "Sunbathing."

"Sunbathing…? Jolly cold in here for that, isn't it?"

Severus had to close his eyes for a moment to hide the fact that he was rolling them spectacularly.

"So it would seem. Would you excuse me?" Severus replied in the most well-to-do, poncy voice that he could, even bowing sardonically. If Rosier couldn't understand mockery in the slightest then he might as well have fun with it.

Rosier stopped him just before he managed to escape his presence.

"So have you… er… have you got your orders then, Snape?"

Severus paused a while, mulling over Rosier's bewildering query. "To find a sunnier spot to tan? Yes, I have, thanks to you."

Another bewildered expression was thrown his way. Severus thought he'd better start being serious else Evan's head explode.

"What orders?" he added, trying to sound as interested as he possibly could when he was not in the slightest.

Evan placed a hand on his back, which, as always, caused Severus to tense his muscles. He leant in so close to Severus that his breath began to make him nauseous. "From _the Dark Lord_! Avery and Mulciber have theirs as well. We are all to meet for our initiations on… you mean to say you never got-? You were not even informed of it?"

"The Dark Lord sent you invitations by owl willy nilly?" Severus scoffed. "Surely Dumbledore's got wind if it by now… honestly; was it at least in code?"

It was Rosier's turn to scoff. "Don't be ridiculous, Sev! Lucius Malfoy has written- only, well…"

"Well, what?"

"Well… if you weren't invited I don't think I should be talking to you about it, should I?"

Severus opened his mouth to protest, but shut it again. So, the Dark Lord didn't want him after all. After all his grandmother had said, after all she had promised… another part of his mind was fighting against these thoughts – _you said no, anyway. Even if she seemed so sure that you would change your mind, you still said no. _Yes, indeed he did. What was the point of feeling so dejected if he had refused this invitation? Severus was not quite sure… but he felt the sharp stabbing pain that that seclusion brought nevertheless. He had spent the better half of four years planning his life around a group of people who didn't want him…

"No… I suppose the Dark Lord would not be pleased if you did…" he said quietly.

Evan was apparently attempting to construct his facial features in such way as to look sympathetic; it wasn't working very well – he looked more as if he had sat on something terrible sharp and long.

"I am very surprised you were not offered a spot, Severus. My condolences." Evan's words were so stilted that Severus was positive he was neither surprised nor concerned.

It was only until Rosier left the room in an infuriatingly cheery manner that the reality of having something that he had dreamed of having so brutally ripped away from him truly hit Severus. The temper inherited from Tobias getting the better of him, as it so often did (and something he would forever toil resiliently to keep under control), he delivered a swift angry kick to the table leg – a kick so hard that the following jab of throbbing pain that radiated from his foot almost convinced him that he had broken something.

Of course… the sudden shot of pain only made him angrier. Indeed, it filled him up with inexcusable anger.

Were he a tad older, Severus would have thought to take a deep breath and close his eyes for a moment while he collected his thoughts. But instead, and with all thoughts of his book gone, he decided to rush back to the Slytherin seventh-year boys dormitory, retrieve the wand which he had left in his haste to rush around the school and find the book, and curse James Potter into oblivion.

~*~

* * *

~*~

Aurora Sinistra was laying in a rather awkward position on one of the common rooms couches feeling like the ceiling had just collapsed onto her face. She slowly placed a cool palm to her aching forehead, daring not to make any sudden movements… _thank Merlin I have terrible circulation… _she thought; a painful wince following as her cold hand started to warm against her throbbing skull. The exams were now completely over and, though she was certain that she had done as well as she could, Aurora could not help but feel slightly resentful that her migraines had to play up just when everyone could start relaxing.

And then a part of her felt ridiculous for even contemplating wanting to switch from having a jackhammer to the head over her free-time to during her exams; and then she just wished she would shut-up and go to sleep.

Being a fantastically sunny day, all the Slytherins were either outside swimming in the lake, or under the more secluded of the trees undertaking more intimate activities. A few of her fellow Slytherin friends had taken control over the dormitory with their pubescent drama-filled discussions of nonsense… Aurora groaned and wished they would leave so she could lock herself away and shut the curtains.

The boulder guarding the common room suddenly swung open violently, sending prickles of torturous fireworks off inside her head. She could not bare to let any light in by opening her eyes and thus just lay like a corpse on the couch, praying that they would not sit, nor walk, anywhere near her.

"You wouldn't… happen to have… ice?" she called out feebly, but she was not answered. The person was now hurriedly moving up the boy's stairs.

"Prick." Aurora murmured, holding her head.

The steps stopped.

_Oh, hoorah._

"What did you call me?"

Forgetting the pain, Aurora opened her eyes and immediately wished she hadn't.

"Severus? Huh. I should've guessed. Look… could you-" She tried to sit up, but it was all in vain.

"_Shut-up_." The words were spoken so harshly that she knew he meant them. His footsteps continued up the stairs; Aurora now lay both in agony and fury.

She heard him throw various objects and swear from all the way up the stairs. Something bad must've happened… but she knew him well enough not to pry. Still, she had to do something. She didn't really know why, but she did. Ever since that popular Lily girl dropped all contact with Severus for calling her a name and started strutting around the with boy who almost killed him like it was nothing – well, Aurora supposed she was the only friend he had left… even if he didn't consider her anything like he considered Lily.

Aurora smiled to herself disconsolately; what an arrangement for a proud Slytherin such as herself to find herself in. Running around cleaning up the mess left by a haughty little Gryffindor, astonishingly unappreciative of the friend she once had wrapped around her little finger.

When Severus returned down the stairs, Aurora opened her eyes far enough to see a wand being swung around in his hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice flashing with a warning. She knew he was about to do something rather untoward.

"That is none of your concern. Go back to sleep." And he was gone.

Though her head felt it was going to explode, Aurora knew that she would have to be the rational brains of this operation (_naturally_). She heaved herself up – gasping in pain as she did so – and struggled to follow her imprudently difficult friend out of the common room.

It was out of instinct, more than logic, that she found herself outside the library in the Gryffindor hangout spot under the trees. It was lucky she did as sure enough, Severus was making his way around the corner, wand at the ready.

With a leap that could have put grasshoppers to utter shame, Aurora managed to grab the back of his robes with a pincer-like grip; Severus snapped around so violently that he knocked the already-crouching Aurora Sinistra to the floor.

"Ow!"

"Sinistra! _What_ do you think you're doing, grabbing me like that? I could have hurt you!"

There was a certain fear in his face as he said this… the way in which he spoke indicated that he was angry more at himself than at her for grabbing him. In one swift move, he grasped onto her upper arm and pulled her up to face him.

"Ungh…" Aurora murmured, momentarily forgetting why she was there amidst the throbbing pain in her head.

"Did I hurt you?" utter panic rang in his voice.

"No!" Aurora bit back, dusting leaves off her robes. "I'm not a porcelain doll, you arse! I have a migraine!"

"Then go and see Madam Pomfrey and stop following me!" now satisfied that he was not to blame for her pain, Severus turned away from her with superlative velocity.

Another hand grabbed the back of his neck. Once again he winced.

"Not until you stop being an empty-headed moron!" Aurora retorted as he turned to face her. "What do you think you're going to accomplish, cursing people in broad daylight? Being expelled on your last day of school is going to go down _so _well on your references. Is prison life something you think you'd quite enjoy, Snape? Because that is where you always seem to want to go."

Severus's uneven teeth were now bared. "You are nothing but a meddlesome spoiled brat who wouldn't know suffering if it spat in your face."

Aurora was so taken aback that, for once, she had no sharp retort to give him.

"Spoiled, huh…" she said in nothing more than a whisper. In her silence, Severus attempted yet again to move closer to James Potter and Sirius Black, who were sitting on one of the high branches of their usual tree. This time, they spotted him.

"Oh look who's here Jamesey!" Black shouted cheerfully. "Snivellus has come back for more. I guess it's his last chance to _grease _us with his presence!"

A few of the Gryffindors laughed at this, including the Head Boy.

"You'll be laughing on the other side of your face in a minute, Black."

"Ho ho! Don't get Snivelly mad, Padfoot." Potter laughed, leaping from the tree and smartening up his robes as he got up. "He and your brother might just come back and waste more of our valuable charms on them! Why, here's one now!"

A bolt of red light erupted from James's wand, but Severus blocked it with an effortless flick.

"Oh look, Snivellus has got some balls. Who'dve thought it, hey?"

"Ugh, Padfoot, please, don't make me throw up my breakfast."

Severus sent a jet of green over both Black and Potter. Potter managed to block the curse, but Black took a deep cut to the cheek.

"You'll pay for that Snivelly!Bet your Mummy wouldn't like you to come home with all cuts now, would she? Huh. Or maybe that'd just make it easier for her to suck out all your blood, the vampire bitch!"

Aurora had to sprint across the lawn, shouting at the top of her lungs for all the violence that ensued next. Severus had thrown his wand completely away and was now pummelling Potter with his fist, while Black had jumped down and was doing the same to Severus.

"STOP IT! STOP IT!" Aurora screamed, pulling Severus away from the tangle of fists and testosterone. Her long dark brown hair was matted all over her sweaty face.

"_You'll pay, Potter! YOU'LL PAY!" _Severus was still shouting. Aurora grabbed his shoulders and yanked him away so hard that this time both of them fell onto the ground. By this time two other people had run into the circle; Lily Evans and Remus Lupin were pulling both Potter and Black away from the circle.

"Stop it, all of you! Would you stop coming here and riling him up, Severus! Nothing's going to change," Lily said, while holding a struggling James in her arms. "Just… leave me alone."

"He wasn't looking for you!"

"I wasn't looking for you!"

Both Severus and Aurora retorted at the same time. Lily looked highly unbought; Aurora wanted to smack that expression right off her face.

"Then what are you doing, exactly?" she questioned.

"Just taking up space, as always!" Potter said, still squirming in her grasp.

"Shut-up, Potter. As if your head doesn't take up ten times more space." Aurora couldn't contain herself any longer. She had no idea why Severus spent the slightest amount of time worrying about these cretins. She began to pull Severus away, who thankfully, wasn't as resistant as James was.

"Don't talk about my boyfriend like that, Aurora!" Lily protested.

"Oh, don't even get me started on you and your sense of entitlement, Evans - I'd miss the train home. Come on, Severus."

Sirius and James burst into howls of laughter as Lily's face slowly began to drop. "Why the hell are you sticking up for old Snivelly all of a sudden, Sinistra? Got a bit of a fetish for mangy little greasy bats, have you? What a life you have, huh, telescopes and greasy bats!"

"Ooh, Prongs, let's get out of here before the bat and the batette start snogging all over us!"

"Leave it, guys." Lily interjected.

"Got nothing to say, Sinistra, eh? That's a new sound isn't it? Sinistra not opening her big mouth." Sirius exclaimed upon seeing Aurora place a hand to her head.

"I think she knows that she has more sense than to lower herself to your level of idiotic remarks!" Severus snarled all of a sudden.

Amidst the fits of laughter and whooping – Aurora forcibly grabbed Severus and marched the two of them clear away from the Gryffindor den. She held up the palm of her hand to Lily Evans, not bothering to turn around to face the Head Girl who called "Aurora…!" after her.

"You should've let me curse them all," Severus said harshly, which caused her to return a fierce glare in his direction. He had to purposely slow himself down to be able to stay at Aurora's side; she began to grasp the wall.

"Yes I… I'd let you get expelled the last day of school…. Mmm!" Aurora sank to the floor in pain. "Wow, Severus… have… you been hanging out with the wrong friends… I think I just need to pop in the broom closet and cut my head off, could you help?"

It had suddenly seemed to click in his mind that she actually _did _have quite the unpleasant migraine. "You should've stayed in bed, not have run after me. Not in the state you're in." He pulled her up gently and helped her walk. "You look like you've crawled out of a swamp."

"Nice."

"Don't mention it."

"I would have preferred a space-centred comparison…"

"Alright. You look like you've crawled out of a meteorite, you astrophysics drip."

As they both turned away from the direction of the hospital wing, Aurora had to make herself speak again: "considering how many times you've been there I'd have thought you would know the hospital wing's that way."

Severus issued an amused snigger. She hardly ever heard him snigger, let alone laugh, it rather unnerved her. "Oh, I am much more adapt at Potions than Pomfrey, trust me. You'll feel better in an instant."

_The bat has a point. _

~*~

* * *

~*~

The common room was rather packed when they both stumbled back in, Aurora barely able to stand at this point. Knowing the dangers that awaited the people of the masculine persuasion were they attempt to walk into the girl's dorms in order to brew the potion, they went instead to the boys.

"You can wait downstairs, the potion should take more than five minutes." Severus said as she motioned to follow him.

Aurora scoffed. "And be subject to all that ear-piercing banter, I don't think so. Can I just lie on your bed?"

Severus tensed up as they reached the door. He didn't answer straight away, but instead creaked open the door to his dormitory, checking if anyone else was residing within it.

"Yes, I suppose you could…" he finally stated, happy that none of the other boys were there to give him grief for it.

Before he even finished his sentence, Aurora had collapsed into one of the beds, facedown.

"How did you know that was my bed?" he asked, quite stunned. It wasn't even the one closest to the door.

A quick jab of a finger behind her back motioned to all the potions equipment resting on top of the trunk at the foot of the bed. How could it be anything but his? Aurora heard an amused snort behind her back as he quietly clanked and clinked with all his potions bottles; he knew enough not to talk and aggravate her head… she was rather touched by this thoughtfulness on his part.

Ten minutes later, Aurora was sitting up on Severus's bed, her back propped up with his pillows, toying with the potion bottle still in her hands. Severus sat on the edge next to her, as they discussed the directions they were to take after all this Hogwarts business had finished.

"Of course I want to do something with Astronomy," Aurora told him. "Though there aren't really that many jobs available for Astronomers in the Wizarding world – not that it bothers me. I was thinking of joining Muggle astrophysicists."

"You would need extra education for a Muggle astronomers job."

"Yes, well, astronomy is all Muggle physics really… I wouldn't mind doing that anyway: going to university and all. Continuing to learn everything I can about the final frontier."

'Indeed?" he seemed rather shocked. "What was the point of you coming to Hogwarts exactly? Not to mention Slytherin?"

Aurora laughed. "I see nothing wrong in integrating oneself in the Muggle community. It's ignorant and unwise for a wizard to pretend it doesn't exist. Especially when the only other option in the wizarding world is Divination and "reading" people's futures from the stars, and I'll be hung and drawn before I start going down _that _road. No… as long as I get any sort of money coming in I'll be fine; it's my mother, you see, she's all the way back in India and I'm trying to get her over here to live with me. She's… she's gone through some terrible things."

There was a long pause as she sipped the last drops of her migraine-easing potion. It was indeed a lot more efficient than the ones she usually received in the hospital wing. Severus opened his mouth a few times, as if trying to find the words to something. Aurora shook it away.

"Oh, don't bother. I won't continue to bore you with my life story as a little girl in West Bengal; it's rather dry. Do you want to go for a walk? This room isn't exactly the most clinically sterile place in the world…"

The two Slytherins continued their banter all the way down to the lake, where a few students were still lounging… awaiting dinnertime.

"I didn't realise you were born in India, I thought… well…"

"That I was spoiled English brat with filthy rich Indian parents?"

"No! That's not what I… I didn't mean to call you spoil-"

"No, no, it's fine Severus. I have a far too comfortable life here, able to do what I choose and study my obsession; that's spoiled enough to me."

"Uh… yes. Well, no… I mean, you should always be able to do what you want…"

He looked completely uncomfortable with the whole situation now. As if mentioning anything else about her old home would send Aurora into a nostalgic fit of sob stories. What a ridiculously pubescent boy thing to be afraid of… they both settled themselves under a particularly shady tree.

"Anyway, thanks for the potion. I think we all know what you're going to be doing after school, Mr. Apothecarist."

Severus shifted uncomfortably.

"No? Mr. Healer? Professor Snape, Potions teacher? Dr. Snape, Anaesthetist? Neurosurgeon?"

"_Never_. I'll _never_ be a Muggle Doctor."

Something had suddenly changed in his eyes... as if something that was laying dormant had suddenly decided to pounce out of its safe hiding place within the reeds of his subconscious.

"It's called a joke, Severus, Merlins beard…"

"I want nothing to do with the Muggle world. You may think they're interesting, fantastic beings, Aurora, but let me assure you – they're all scum."

Aurora blinked at him in utter shock at least four times. _What the hell did he just admit to? Did he admit to hating all Muggles? Surely not._

"Severus… that's almost Death Eater talk right there. That's not like you."

"You have no idea what I'm like."

"I know you're not a Death Eater."

And that was it.

Severus got up so quickly that he could just have easily apparated – Aurora wasn't sure which of the two it was.

"No, I'm _not _a Death Eater, you're quite right. What the hell could they do with a half-blood like me anyway? What chance do I stand with all these inbred purebloods running around like they own place, brains the size of grapes. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to and pack my things before dinner."

"Whoa, whoa…" Aurora, who had also got up almost as fast as he did, held up her hands to stop his rampage. "Now I'm gathering the distinct impression that you… you _want to join the Death Eaters. _Tell me I'm delusional. Please tell me I'm delusional… no, I'd _have_ to be delusional to believe that garbage – oh Merlin, I'm delirious!"

"Would you stop your nonsense!" Severus snapped. "Life isn't as black and white as you make it out to be. People will get hurt because I don't cut it. There's nothing I can do about it anymore."

"'Don't cut it'?! Don't cut it for what? To be a murderer? A rapist? Do you _know _what the Death Eaters _do_ to Muggles?"

"Some Muggles deserve it!"

Aurora almost fell over in disbelief. Everything she thought he was… it was now crumbling before her eyes.

"So the one or two Muggles who deserve it are worth killing innocent little children for, is it? For… Merlin, I can't even get the words out… such _unimaginable _acts… to _children, _Severus… they rape people for the hell of it!"

Aurora was so livid that anything he may have been retorting was going straight through her head and out again. "Fuck, Severus! I can't believe you of the all people in this entire _world _would even consider something like that!"

"What difference does it make anyway? I'm not joining them!"

"Do you _think _that was the point I was trying to make, you idiot?" she snapped back equally as vehemently. "The mere fact that you'd be willing to conform to their ideologies just to get some sort of revenge on _one or two _people who you don't get along with shows me that you're just the same as all those bigoted spoiled rich kids who give up their lives to follow You Know Who like trained chimps." Her breath was rising in her chest, she was so angry; she didn't know whether to turn away from this sorry sight or keep shouting at him – praying that he would tell her it was all a joke.

"Is all the money and power that he promises really worth your freedom, Severus Snape? Do you hate yourself that much?" she asked, genuinely interested to know.

"It's not about me." He replied simply. "I have never wished for myself to gain any sort of benefit from this; I _didn't _join because I know my mother would be wholly disconsolate if I did. She doesn't need anymore pain than she already has."

"Look, Severus… " Aurora said, talking to him in a much more gentler tone than before. "I know you must have had terrible, unimaginable experiences with… your father…" she pressed this softly; the way in which he turned his head away from her proved her to be right about the person he wanted to extract revenge on. "But don't you see that you'd be giving your entire life away, just for a few moments of shallow pleasure at watching him suffer?"

"It's not all about watching him suffer! It's about finally doing something for my mother that I should have done long ago! Eighteen years she's taken beatings and even more terrible acts for me. For years she would not even let the filthy Muggle lay a finger on me and took it all on herself… until he weakened her so much that she didn't have the energy to fight anymore!"

Aurora let him stay silent for a while. She knew he had not intended to just divulge what he did… anything Aurora could have replied with would seem intrusive and possibly clam him up for good.

"Anyway, I said no. And that's that. One way or another, it's not going to turn out well." He finished, gathering himself up once again.

"I still don't think you get the point though," Aurora had to add. Noble intentions or not, she was still bubbling with fury over the fact that he'd be willing to kill thousands of people just to get rid of his Muggle father was beyond all comprehension. "You say it's not about you, Severus, when it so clearly is."

"Could you spare me your wise words of wisdom, ___Borealis? You really don't know when to shut-up do you?_" he shot, gaining more momentum from her continuing arguments. The use of that old, annoying nickname would have managed to amuse her if she weren't so incensed. As Severus turned away to make his way back to the Great Hall, she threw herself out in front of him.

"If you thought I didn't know when to shut-up before, you're in for a big surprise. You know why it's all about you Severus? Because _you're _the one wanting the power to extinguish your Muggle father by force when there are obviously a million more ways to do so."

She spread her hands wide, as if gesturing for him to make an attack on her right then and there. "Alright, I'm a Muggle now, and You Know Who has told you to kill me, to strike me down in cold blood. Would you do that? Would you kill your friend on his orders?"

"I… no! W_hich is why I have refused to join them, _for the last damn time!"

"You talk like you wish you were there."

"Oh, stop acting so high and mighty with your 'sensible' advice. It's a wonder why you didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw if you think you're so smart!"

It took all of Aurora's will power not to break down right then and there; she had lost him, she knew it.

"Because I know what's best for myself!" she stammered, emotion finally getting the best of her. "And besides, signing a death warrant over my own head to fight for a cause I don't even agree with is not what I call _very Slytherin_, do you? I think that's more of a Gryffindor thing… or perhaps that's what you want, to be more Gryffindor?"

She viciously wiped away a tear that had rebelled against her wishes and was now rolling defiantly down her cheek. Severus seemed to watch it in disbelief.

"Lily was right about you, you know. She was right. You're a lost cause. And I should have known that the only reason you returned to spend any time with me this year was because _she _stopped talking to you… just because you needed someone else to look out for you, something I stupidly mistook for some kind of friendship like the idiot I was!"

The words fell out of her mouth like a waterfall of grief.

"Aurora, that's not true!"

"Well, you'll have to run along and learn to amuse yourself on your own now, because I am wholly finished with playing the understudy. Take care, Severus."

"Aurora, don't be ridiculous! We've been friends for years! Before… her!"

She never shot a retort back at him and made her way hastily up to the castle, sniffing back the rest of the basted tears that had decided to join their comrade. In the distance she heard him utter a howl of anger, but Aurora Sinistra kept walking.

It would be many years until they spoke again.

~*~

* * *


	11. Oranges to Plums

**The Pureblood Prince**

**by MystFatale.  
**

**Warnings****: **A lot of violence in this chapter, including that of a sexual nature – I'm considering changing the rating to M because of it. You have been warned.

Lots of angst. But you couldn't write Severus Snape's story without it.

**Disclaimer: **All characters you recognise belong to J.K. Rowling.

* * *

_CHAPTER XI: Oranges to plums_

It was the same, usual story - as it had been for the past 15 or so years. Eileen used to cherish these moments with her husband, yearn for them, even. He used to be a _lot _more accommodating when they made love, he made her feel such pleasurable sensations that she was sure no-one should lawfully be allowed to feel them… but that was a long time ago, a time when she was young and restless and it felt good to hurt.

That time, however, had long since passed. She couldn't continuously keep saying no to him – it would skyrocket his temper into frightening heights. Tobias's advances always seemed to get worse the closer the school holidays came looming… he always used the "we won't have much more time to be alone" excuse, and Eileen always seemed to accept it and immediately regret it.

The day had started pleasantly well; it was a Sunday, and Tobias hadn't given her any grief to speak of which always put her in a good mood. She had only cried once that week… Eileen suspected that if Severus were here he would hardly believe his eyes – he may even perhaps have been rather proud of her. She was doing well for a change.

Tobias's parents had come around for dinner that night, which never was as ghastly as one would expect. John Snape had his usual "ah, our Soren will be in medical school before yer know it, son. First of the Snape men to be bound for University, let alone medicine! Yer did a good job there, Tobe." talks – which always made Tobias hot at the collar as he took a swig of his beer and exchanged apprehensive looks with Eileen. She had an unrivalled air of grace about her compared to the Snape's, however, and merely smiled as she gathered up the chipped plates of the roast meat that Veronica had prepared. Audacious or not, her in-laws were almost a pleasure to deal with when Eileen considered the other option of her own parents. She imagined the revolted sneer on her mothers face if she were ever to be presented with such a dinner.

"You must miss him, pet," Veronica Snape said after watching her daughter-in-law's face from the kitchen sink. Eileen liked Veronica (or 'Grandma Ronica' as Severus penned her when he was in his infancy); she was warm and completely unpretentious: the exact opposite of her own mother. She was the only person in the entire family who used to come over and spend the days with Severus as a child, play Muggle games with him, take him out to the park to feed the ducks with his cousins… she had been the sole grandparent that he deserved, until he began to distance himself away from the Snape's at least, and Eileen loved her for that.

"Always," Eileen answered with a sad smile. "Always will. He is a grown man now though, Vee, he won't be missing his 'ma anymore". Funny, she only had just realised how much she missed Severus calling her 'ma'. He hadn't done so since he was 11; it had been "mum" until he was 16 and then it had become such a cold and distant "mother" after that.

Eileen was feeling so pleasant from having company that she didn't even attempt to reject her husband as he placed rough, unshaven kisses upon the back of her neck. Though he stank of lager and he was obviously tipsy (though Tobias being tipsy was as good as him being sober to be honest), Eileen knew it was the best mood she was ever going to get him in and she best not ruin it.

The alcohol had not been kind to Tobias… though he was still the rugged, working class Muggle man she had been attracted to 23 years ago, the drink gave him an air of slobbery and brutishness that was hard to overlook. Eileen had to focus on the orange lamppost outside their window and not on the off-putting alcoholic smell that was radiating from his lips as he struggled with her bra, finally flinging it to the end of the bed.

"Use it," he demanded. Eileen knew what he was referring to but she shook her head.

"We've been through this a hundred times. You broke it; I can't cast anything on you.."

With a frustrated murmur, Tobias busied himself in the cabinet drawer as Eileen lay hushed next to him. When he returned, he barely laid a finger on the other parts of her body before he spread her legs apart; Eileen winced in pain as he attempted again and again to enter her.

"Can't you _do_ something about that?" he stipulated with an annoyed tut, as if she were deliberately making the situation tricky.

"You never _listen_ to me, Toby. It's _brok-" _

"I didn' mean your stupid magic stick! You used to make those… those _potion things _for yourself. Not that you ever _needed _to back in the day."

"They take four days to infuse."

"Oh, how convenient for you, Ei. You have every other bloody magic thing under the sun at your beck and call but you couldn't give a shit about us."

Eileen lay back in the pillows, exasperated. There was some slight truth to what he said… what on earth had happened to them? There had been a time they couldn't get enough of each other; times where he'd come back from work and the first thing they'd do was rip each others clothes off. She closed her eyes and remembered the old Tobias – the one without alcohol and Merlin knows what other drugs swimming around in his veins – "urgh!" she cried in pain as he finally managed to penetrate her.

"What's wrong now?" Tobias said; he was a decent man in many aspects, and Eileen would be prepared to argue that point to her grave. He always stopped when she told him to. Unlike…

"Nothing, nothing's wrong," she whispered, trying desperately to block out the images of the garden of her parent's manor. She was here in Spinners End, not there; she was _here_ making love to her young husband. It wasn't the same, it wasn't the same. "Keep going. It feels good."

She wanted to believe that so badly that she almost convinced herself that it did. Tobias was certainly convinced – he gave her an extremely rare smile, it almost melted her completely.

"I love you, Tobias Snape." … Despite it all, in these moments she did.

"You're my Princess, Ei." He replied, using a very old term of endearment – he only ever used it when he was in bed with her; it was moments like these that Eileen remembered why she had once cherished the late hours with him so much. A ridiculous child-like part of her hoped that Tobias had finally chosen her and Severus over the drink; that everything would be better now because he had smiled at her.

_She was twelve years old… she had always loved that garden, all the make believe games she could play; she would pick flowers for her mother who would always place them in a blue crystal vase and display the proudly on the mantelpiece. Sometimes her mother would sit with her in the garden, they'd lie on the grass and she would fall asleep in her mother's safe delicate arms where nothing could hurt her…_

"Ungh…" Eileen moaned, managing to mask the pain of the images so well that it made her husband moan back.

_But her mother was busy that night as Eileen played in the garden. Her parents hosted many parties at Prince Manor; that was the reason that daddy was so very well respected at the Ministry, her mother would say. Eileen would be forced to look "presentable" in the vile pink, purple or lilac dresses her mother used to make her wear… she'd sit in the garden playing with the other spoiled children until dinner was called or mother dragged her back into the mezzanine to impress her friends with. _

"_Oh, my little Eileen is going to be a first class witch, you know." Serafina would brag over her vintage elf-made wine. "Already knows everything there is to discover about potions. She loves her potions. Isn't that right, darling?"_

"_Yes, mummy." _

"_Say 'mother', dear."_

"_Yes, mother."_

_Eileen knew her mummy's friends would roll their eyes as she moved on to talk to others at her party. They didn't like mummy very much; Eileen wondered why they even came to these parties, they didn't seem to like anyone. _

"Mmm, Eileen… you feel so good, Princess."

The adult Eileen bit her lip in trepidation. She wished he wouldn't call her that anymore. It made her feel so dirty.

_She had finished her dessert early and with a nod of agreement from Serafina, Eileen made her way into the garden to play with her pet kneazle Bella. She had run around the garden a multitude of times trying to chase Bella, but she was always too fast. _

"_Hello there, girl." _

_Eileen stopped in her tracks, a man about the same age as her father had stumbled out into the garden; he was wearing red robes and looked equally red in the cheeks._

"_Hello, sir." She knew instantly that she didn't like him. Children are, after all, very quick to make up their minds like that…_

"_You're Atticus Prince's daughter, I believe?" the man asked, and without waiting for an answer, stated: "I'm Arcturus Black, one of his superiors at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. Owes me a lot of favours that Atticus does, after I stuck up for him through all those… Auror entanglements."_

"_Oh, OK." Eileen replied, not interested in the slightest. She turned away and moved towards Bella again before the man approached her yet again._

"_Said I could take whatever I wanted so that he could repay me, o- old Atticus did," Arcturus slurred. He pulled Eileen by her collar, which made her scream out. _

"_Silencio!"_

_She tried to struggle free, but his grasp was too strong. The only person who had looked up from the house was the very man Arcturus had been referring to… the very same man who took one look at his superior grappling with his daughter in the garden, and instantly turned away again. Eileen screamed for her daddy to come and save her, as daddy's should do – but no sound came.._

Her hands gripped tightly onto their bedspread. She wanted to scream now. _Stop it, stop it, stop it._

"_If you tell anyone little girl, your father is going to Azkaban and he knows it, let's make that perfectly clear." _

_It happened in the space of a flash of lightening… he had ripped her violet dress apart and was bearing down upon her, salivating all over her – she was helpless._

She couldn't go through with it anymore; not after thinking about it again… why did she have to think about that again? It always ruined everything.

"No! Please, Tobias! Stop it."

_Stop it, stop it, stop it! Why won't he listen?_

"Urgh, Eileen, yes… yes… I'm gonna…"

"STOP, TOBIAS!" Eileen screamed, and he did at once… thank Merlin.

"What the bloody hell?!" Tobias shouted in utter confusion. "What the hell is wrong with you, woman?!"

"I'm sorry, Tobias, I'm really sorry. You know I love you, but I can't… I can't tonight."

Tobias sighed heavily and pushed himself viciously off her. He sat at the end of the bed, shaking his head as she gazed at him, not sure whether to reach out for him or not.

"Same old, same old, Ei... I'll never be good enough for you, will I?"

Eileen reached for them then, but he pushed her away. "It's not that Toby – you know you are. I just can't. You _know _it's not you..." she reached for him again and this time managed to pull him back towards her, she kissed the back of his neck and moved her hands down towards his naked lap tenderly as he flinched irritably. "... let me please you, Toby, you don't have to worry about me."

"You know what would please me?" Tobias started up again, his eyes flashing with rage as he turned to face her. "Is a wife who actually wanted to fuck her husband once in a while! Oh, once in a blue moon yer'll lie on your back, close your eyes and open your legs and take it - but I know you find me revolting. I ain't as stupid as you think, Ei!"

"What are you talking about?"

"It's pretty obvious, you dumb witch! Yer seeing someone else, aren't you?!"

Eileen gaped at him in pure astonishment. "Wha-?"

"Some poncy magic man, I bet!"

"I would _never _do that! I made a vow to you. Even if you don't believe that, you know how I feel about wizarding men."

"Wouldn't say no to a normal man then, eh?"

"I would say no to _any _man."

Tobias snorted and pulled on a dressing gown which was hanging over the dresser. "Probably seeing a woman then, wouldn't put it past you..."

"What was that, Toby?"

"Disgusting, that's what yer are!" he suddenly fired from across the room. "Who the hell knows what sorta filthy acts you witches get up to when I'm not around!"

"I'm in this house all the time! The only time I get out is do what shopping I can with the money we have – witches don't perform rituals like you believe, Tobias, let alone in the middle of the supermarket."

"Who knows where you go when I'm working my arse off to keep you!" Tobias countered. It seemed as if he were just itching for the perfect opportunity to bring this up – and Eileen had delivered it to him on a silver platter. "Yeah, I know. Bleed the stupid working class husband dry as he slaves away in a fucking mill all his life; no holidays, no life, just the ungrateful family I come home to every night!"

"I know how hard you work Tobias, and you _know _I love you for that. I wanted to get a job, but I can't… it's different in the wizarding world; it's expected that women get jobs too…"

"I don't need you to get a job, Ei." Tobias told her furiously. "I would be ok with it if weren' for the ice cold reception I get from _our dear son _every time I walk through the door! Or a wife who's too bloody frigid to fuck me once in a while-"

"-it's talk like this that gets you no where, Toby." Eileen replied calmly, she had given up fighting long ago. It wasn't worth what he did to her and said to Severus. "- well that and the drinking."

"I'd have to bloody well drink to want to have sex with a vampire like you!"

"You used to like that about me."

"Before I knew yer actually _were _a vampire."

"I'm not a vampire."

"Bloody well close enough."

A few minutes of silence followed, Eileen returned to staring at the lamppost and Tobias sat at the end of their bed with his head in his hands. Were she not so hurt by her husbands comments about her looks that he once found so captivating, Eileen would have embraced him. He looked utterly defeated within himself this time.

"Never thought I was enough for yer, Ei, but I tell yer what – I was the happiest man in the world once," Tobias continued through his hands. "Somewhere along the line that went to shit, didn' it?"

"Things change, yes, but it doesn't mean it's any worse," Eileen replied tenderly. "We had a beautiful son together; you gave me the best thing anyone could dream of."

As if setting off a high-pitched alarm, Tobias crawled towards her on the bed, his face was full of hatred. "Don't remind me of our _beautiful _son! He's nothing but an ungrateful piece of shit who ripped my life away from me and gave me nothing in return!"

All the sympathy drained from Eileen then. She jumped up from the bed; she was ready to fight him now, she was already ready to fight for her child.

"How can you call a father and say that?!" she demanded. "Severus _loved _you with all his heart when he was a boy. He'd follow you everywhere, he'd follow you around the house when you came home and hug onto your waist and cry for piggy backs, do you remember? And all you ever did was belittle him and degrade him and scar him inside over and over! Tell him how it was his fault that you hated your life. Well it's _your _fault he hates _you!"_

She expected it, but she didn't care – Tobias grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her off the bed, where she landed in a heap. "Then go back to that cesspool of inbreedin' and Satanism your parents are so found of! I'm sure _Sev _wouldn't mind that! I deserve a normal woman to have a _normal _child with."

Fear shot through Eileen like a bullet. "No, Tobias!" she cried, "You know I never want to go back there! And I've told you I never want Severus to ever be in sight of my father! … and he is normal!" she added indignantly.

He slapped her straight across the face. Instead of cowering in front of him, Eileen turned away and ran to the landing – she didn't expect him to run after her, he usually stormed off to his unnecessary study room – but he did.

"Stop it!" she wailed as he grabbed her wrist and turned her around on the landing as she made to rush down the stairs.

"_You've taken away the best years of my life, you bitch! I have a son who wishes I were dead and a wife who DELIBERATELY turned him against me!"_

"YOU did that yourself. You_ bastard."_

Tobias started to shake with rage; as if he had so much fury inside him that he didn't know what to do with it. Eileen could tell by the way his mouth curled in a malevolent smirk that he was about to swing at her, not a slap, but a punch that could have broken her jaw.

The fist came towards her, but instead of wincing, anticipating the excruciating pain that would soon follow, Eileen threw out her hand to stop him.

As if hit by an invisible wall moving at the speed of sound, Tobias flew back in the air where he hit the opposing wall, looking down upon the stairs.

"_Toby!"_

Before Eileen could do anything to stop it, her husband slid down the wall and onto middle step of the stairway, where his motionless body rolled down towards the front door.

Eileen could have sworn that she had just flown towards him… she fell to the floor and lifted his head; blood was pouring from his temple where he had hit the edge of one of the steps. Without a wand, and with most of her potions missing, all she could do was shake him in terror.

"Toby! Toby! I'm sorry! I didn't – I - Oh, Toby, Toby… wake up! _Wake up!_"

All coherent actions that she should have taken had suddenly drained away from her. The terrified Princess clung to her lifeless knight, and screamed.

~*~

* * *

~*~

It took all of Severus's strength not to just run and throw himself off the Astronomy tower as he watched Sinistra walk briskly away, wiping her face viciously every few steps or so. Single handily he had managed to turn the only person he had considered a real friend for these entire seven years against him. There wasn't any point in trying anymore… it seemed the entire human race despised the very ground he walked on. After searching the high heavens for her to explain himself away – as if he could have managed that anyway! – he stamped back up to his dorm feeling as if his mind was caught in a deep fog. It did not help that, as he punched his pillow violently and threw himself upon his bed, he noticed the scent of her still lingered on his sheets.

And eventually, the endless traces of mandarin oranges and plums (which, after seven years of knowing her, he had only just managed to decipher) became too much for Severus to handle. He tipped the remaining few vials of his safer-to-handle potions ingredients all over his bed and left with the intention of returning when all the liquid had dried and had replaced that damned eclectic aroma of hers.

It was this same feeling of distress that managed to get him to walk past Lily and James at the end-of-year feast that night without feeling like he'd been stabbed in the stomach. As usual, Potter shot him the usual smirk and Lily the usual disapproving glower. This time, though, it only made him thankful that he wouldn't have to suffer it ever again. A few seats across from him, however, Aurora did not look half as disdainful as he thought she would look. He had expected her to have gone straight down the same path as Lily did… either refusing to look at him out of pure revulsion or _constantly _staring at him out of pure revulsion. Sinistra had done neither. It was like a train had run smack-bang into his stomach when he saw her red, puffy eyes.

"Room for me, Sev?"

Severus looked up to see Regulus standing above him. He didn't even answer before Regulus had sat himself down next to him; frankly, Severus was thankful for the distraction.

It wasn't quite the distraction he wanted, however, as Regulus (who had clearly not heard that Severus had not been recruited to the Death Eaters) started to hound him with questions regarding his initiation as they began to eat.

"Merlin, Sev you must be excited! I have to stay in this blasted place two more wasting time with Quidditch and Potions… you will write and tell me how its all going?"

Severus snorted as he shoved a forkful of potatoes into his mouth – it would be his last hearty meal in God knows how long. "I don't think so Regulus, not unless you want both of us to be arrested."

_First-rate excuse, _he thought to himself.

"Well, I suppose." Regulus replied, swigging a glass of pumpkin juice. Noticing that Severus's gaze continued to be fazed further up the Slytherin table, he added: "that Punjabi girl there… what's her name…?"

"Bengali."

"No, that's not it…"

Severus was forced to put his head in his hands after that comment. "No, you idiot - she's_ Bengali,_ not Punjabi."

"Who cares? Same difference; they all look the-"

"Sinistra." Severus thought he might as well make it easy for Regulus before he spouted off on one of his blinkered tangents.

"Yeah, Sinistra… I'd stop eyeing her up if I were you. She hates your guts."

"Couldn't care less," he lied, scraping his fork across his plate with such pressure it made Mulciber grimace across from him.

"Hah, just as well," Regulus chuckled. "That day of your detention she was telling me what a slimy, snarky git she thought you were. Completely agreed with everything I said and then some. Well… you know, we weren't on speaking terms or anything then, Sev."

The pressure released itself slightly. She certainly didn't hate him, then. Well, not before today's occurrences anyway. Being called a creepy, nasty git by that astrophysics drip was more of a term of endearment than anything. He'd be much more worried if she'd called him a decent and respectable person.

"Well, I won't have to put up with her utterly naive way of looking at the world anymore, the self-righteous know-it-all that she is, I don't think I could bear the sight of her for another term." Severus bit back – hoping that somehow the miserable looking Sinistra would hear him and they could settle their differences right then and there.

Unfortunately, she had just drunk down the rest of the contents of her goblet and scurried away, barely noticeable in the clamour of cutlery and gossip.

"Ho ho! I think she heard you." Regulus joked with a mouthful of pumpkin pasty. The conversation then turned into more meaningless drivel. Severus wanted to follow her, of course, to confront her and get everything off his chest, but he knew Aurora well enough to know that she would tear him a new one if he were to walk into her at the height of emotion – that would not help things.

There were the usual graduation speeches from various teachers and the end of year address by Dumbledore – Severus took hardly any of this in and instead lazily stared at the starry ceiling. Regulus would nudge him from time-to-time every time the Headmaster mentioned anything to do with having a meaningful future and fruitful ambitions. The Quidditch cup was presented (Slytherin had managed to triumph over Gryffindor this year, which gave Severus ample opportunity to relish in witnessing Potters stupid little disappointed face) and the House Cup (just snatched from them by a few point by Ravenclaw – Professor Slughorn looked extremely unconvincingly cheerful), before Dumbledore called the feast, and the year to a close.

_Now what to do…? Exist, I suppose. _He thought, a wave of miserable acceptance washing over him.

"Come on, old boy," Rosier exclaimed, clapping Severus on the back, which caused him to flinch. He would never manage get rid of that nervous tick, he was sure. "A bit of end-of-year carousing in the common room, eh?"

"I'm stealing some of your Firewhisky," Regulus murmured as they both rose to their feet.

"Have all of it." Severus had never touched a drop of alcohol; the mere thought of it frightened him to death. He certainly did not intend to start out on the same road as Tobias on the cusp of adulthood. As they walked side-by-side to the entrance hall, he turned the opposite way to his younger associate.

"Where are you off to? You can't run away from this party like all the others, Sev." Regulus protested. "Come on, we got to give you all a good send-off!"

"I need some air," Severus replied. It was half true; he would not have been able to stand a common room packed with every current Slytherin under the sun if his life had depended on it. "I'll join you later."

~*~

* * *

~*~

With Regulus finally out of his hair, Severus took his walk to the only place he could think of at present. The steps to the Astronomy tower were just what he needed to work off the tonne of food he had just consumed, and to clear his head. He didn't quite reach the top floor, as he knew the fate that awaited those poor fools who were found by Professor Alcor in his treasured domain. Severus merely stood on the middle landing, looking out over the great lake and breathing in refreshing gasps of fresh summer air. He had only just begun to wonder why Sinistra hadn't come up here when she had run out of the Great Hall (she was exempt from Alcor's strict rules by weaving her way into becoming something of a grovelling apprentice to him) when he heard something from above that set the hairs on the back of his neck on end.

She _was _up here. And she was bloody _crying_ up here.

Something in him told him to continue up the stairs; the weeping noises continued and continued and it etched into his skull and he wanted to leave but he wanted to stay and… he took a deep breath. _You're not going to help anyone if you deprive yourself of so much oxygen that you pass out and fall all the way down the stairs, _he told himself.

And so he continues up the stairs.

She didn't see him enter, being that Severus was enveloped in the shadows. But Sinistra was as clear as day… she was cowering on the floor in a patch of moonlight, no longer merely sniffing away tears and looking puffy – this time she was heaving with sobs and violently shaking with her hands on her head like a madwoman. Fluid was pouring out of both eye and nose… it was something that should have been an utterly vulgar sight to behold; if he knew that the tears were not for him Severus would have given her such grief for acting like such a mawkish, overly sentimental fool, and he would have advised her to wipe all the snot off her face.

But instead, he completely froze. Try as he might, Severus could not take his eyes off her. He frozen in between two very different feelings; of feeling overwhelmingly shamefaced that someone was hurting this much over someone like _him_, but at the same time feeling… almost _touched _that someone _would _hurt this much over him. It had never happened before. The image of her weeping burned itself into his subconscious; it would never leave him again.

He couldn't let her know that he had seen it all… he knew that it would ruin her; it wasn't right to do that.

He turned to vanish down the spiral staircase and out into the grounds, but as he did so, there was the sound of footsteps creaking up the opposite way. Before he could make a run for it, Sinistra had looked up to where he now stood. Severus snapped around and the midnight black and chocolate brown eyes met one another…

"Who's up there? The Astronomy tower is out of bounds!" came the voice of Professor Alcor.

Severus willed himself to say something, _anything, _even just to tell her how ridiculous she looked… but he just could not find the words. Aurora was gaping, wide-eyed at him; it was a candidly raw sight to behold. The swollen eyes and the clammy face.

It was too much. Severus turned away and walked straight into Professor Alcor. Aurora jumped up from the floor and hastily wiped her eyes with her school robe.

"What is going here, Mr. Snape? … Miss Sinistra?" Alcor inquired.

"Sorry, sir." Aurora replied – she had gathered herself up quite well, considering. "Severus was just looking for me; I know I should've gone back to the common room but I – I wanted to have a look through the telescopes one last time…" she didn't even cast a single glance at her fellow Slytherin.

The silver-haired Astronomy master looked quite convinced, albeit still a tad perturbed.

"As admirable as that is Miss Sinistra, the tower is out of bounds andofficially out of hours for the _both_ of you now - ad infinitum. You are both exceedingly lucky that I'm not able to take forty collective points from Slytherin for this. Come along!"

Severus could tell this last touchy command was more for him than the other Slytherin in the room. He swiftly turned and almost ran from the tower, leaving the Astronomer and the Astronomer-to-be in peace – half of him pleased to have had an excuse to leave and not to talk… half of him bitterly frustrated that he had not been strong enough to talk.

He spent his last night as a Hogwarts student sitting in the corner of the crowded common room, sulking. When the considerably inebriated Mary Parkinson fell into his lap, spilling the contents of her redcurrant rum down his shoulder and proceeded to let Avery place his clumsy hands all over her, Severus thought he ought to head to bed.

As he threw the blankets over himself the unmistakable air of plum and orange hit him, once again. He sniffed at his pillow and wondered briefly if Sinistra smelt that way because she had used the same perfume for seven years, or if she just smelt that way naturally. He cursed himself for even thinking such a thing, as he found the latter option made him very hot around the collar and unexpectedly tingly somewhere else. Nevertheless, he knew he would never smell it again; there was no point dwelling on it now.

Severus closed his eyes and, after what felt like eons, fell into yet another troubled slumber.

~*~

* * *

**Thanks everyone for all your constructive and intelligent reviews. Appreciate them greatly.**


	12. The First Occlumens

**The Pureblood Prince**

**By MystFatale****  
**

* * *

_CHAPTER XII: The First Occlumens_

"_Mine's closest, Ma!"_

_As if waiting for his victorious command, the Gobstone had spat a foul smelling liquid at Eileen; she screwed her face up and stuck her tongue out comically at her son, which made him giggle. _

"_Ok, you won again…" she replied, handing Severus the silver and black Jack ball. "You're getting to be better than this than I am, Sev, and mummy was Hogwarts team captain!"_

_The boy shook his head stubbornly, "no I'm not Ma. You're letting me win. Let's play a real game."_

_For a five year old, Eileen's boy was astoundingly perceptive. It made her quite proud._

"_Alright, then, here's your Gobstones – you be blue, I'll be green."_

"_I wanna be green."_

"_As Team Captain I'm afraid my decision is final, my young recruit."_

_Severus laughed again, which in turn made Eileen grin. At least she had managed to make him forget about his bad day at Brassington primary school, even for a little while. "You're funny, Ma. Anyway__**, you're**__ not Team Captain anymore!"_

"_Have you been captain?"_

"_No… but I want green!"_

"_You have to know when it's in your best interest to fight or take commands, Severus. No-one likes a bossy boots do they?"_

"_**You're**__ a bossy boots!" he replied as he stood up, smirking and crossing his arms. The little boy shrieked in joyful glee as his mother took out her wand and chased him into the kitchen with it. "No! No!" he screamed in false terror as Eileen made one swish of her wand and levitated him up into the air. _

"_I'd take that back, Mister, if I were you!" she chuckled as Severus made swimming motions in the air. _

"_Nope!"_

_With a complex twirl of her wand, Eileen gently turned him around in a complete circle in mid-air, Severus shrieked with childlike joy. "You're like Peter Pan, you." She beamed, moving him around the edges of the room – her eyes fixed upon him, ensuring she wouldn't lose her focus. _

"_I like him. Can you read me that story again tonight, Ma?"_

"_If you won't put up a fuss in the bath,"_

_Severus groaned dramatically. "Fine. Maybe I'll find pirates at Hogwarts to fight!" he motioned swishing a sword in the air; he looked so positively sure of himself, it was a sorrowing sight to Eileen… who knew that he would never have the advantage at Hogwarts over the children who were born into the world of magic; her little boy would have to work so much harder than them, and have his self-assurance shattered in the process, she knew it._

"_There aren't any pirates at Hogwarts, silly boy - only wizards and witches and magical beasts. Some of your friends won't even know what pirates are, I expect, or Peter Pan."_

_Goodness, Eileen thought, even she had only known of the existence of so many Muggle fairy tales and stories after she had gotten pregnant. _

"_They must be stupid then."_

"_Don't you be arrogant, Severus Snape. Only arrogant people publically announce things like that…and overconfidence is a dangerous thing."_

"_Sorry, Ma. What's overconfident mean?"_

"_That misjudge your abilities by thinking you're better than everyone. You won't get many friends if you do that, sweetheart."_

_Eileen positioned herself underneath him, "ready?" she asked. He nodded excitedly. She released her spell and he fell, laughing, right into her arms. Eileen bounced her son up and down playfully a few times before kissing him on his cheek. "You know your Ma loves you more than anything in this world, Severus." – he screwed his face up in boyish disgust – "come on, bath and bed."_

"_And story." He reminded her._

"_And-"_

_The sound of keys scraping across the lock silenced the both of them, Severus whipped up his head to the sound of it clicking open. _

"_Hullo!"_

_Severus squirmed out of his mother's arms "Da's home!" he cried and ran to the hallway, leaving Eileen to stand apprehensively in the middle of the cold kitchen. She hastily tucked away her wand and moved into the dining room (which was basically the same room as the kitchen, only with carpet) to clear up the Gobstones they had left on the floor. _

"_Leave your pa alone, Sev, he's had a rough day," she heard Tobias grumble as entered the room with Severus attached to his waist. _

"_Hello, love," Eileen said quietly as she came to kiss him quickly on the lips. _

"_Bloody rough day," Tobias said, looking past her into the kitchen. "They've only gone and laid off Ted and Mark haven' they? You know it'll be me next, Ei. Dinner ready?"_

_Eileen motioned to the fridge. _

"_I was just going to give Severus a bath; do you think you could warm it up for me?" Eileen asked, eyeing her son as he continued to tug on Tobias's jacket, looking up at him with complete attentiveness. _

"_s'pose," Tobias replied, dragging both him and his son into the kitchen. "I don't know, Ei, all these mill factories are closing down in the area… if I didn' put in so many hours it'd be out on my arse – then-"_

"_I drew a picture for you today, Da" Severus told him proudly, in which seemed to be an attempt to make his father forget what he was saying. "Ma wanted to wait for you to get home before she put on the fridge. It's of a dragon!"_

"_- I'm gonna have to prove to ol' Gary that I'm worth keepin' –"_

"_- They're not usually purple but Henry stole my green pencils. Da! I'll go get it… Da!"_

"_Sev, would you SHUT YER FUCKING MOUTH for one minute, Jesus Christ boy!" Tobias ripped his sons arms from his waist, which sent him tumbling into one of the dining chairs. Eileen screamed and rushed towards their son, who burst into tears as he buried his head in her chest._

"_You swine!" She shot at her husband, who instead of coming back over to his son had busied himself with taking food out of the fridge. "All he wanted to show you was his picture he drew for you!"_

"_Of his little freaky dragon thing; something you must've told him about eh? What, did you have it as a pet once Eileen? I've had a rough day! He should learn to keep his mouth shut!"_

"_He's FIVE!"_

"_He's fucking annoying is what he is."_

_Eileen could have tortured him. She could have ripped him to shreds right there and then. But the boy sobbing into her embrace was the one who deserved all of her attention. She wrapped one of her thin hands around the back of his head, tenderly._

"_Come on Severus," she cooed soothingly, rocking him. "Let's go have a bath and then I'll read you Peter Pan." Her son nodded, and through rasps of sobs managed to sound out the words: "I-I'm sorry Da, I'm sorry – I didn't mean to –to make you angry!"_

_Eileen stood up with his arms around her neck, "don't you__apologise to him, my darling, don't you dare," she said – her eyes flashing with pure revulsion at Tobias, who looked as if he were about to advance on her, but had decided to point his finger vehemently at her instead. As if to say 'you just wait…'_

_Severus had calmed by the time Eileen had got him into the bath; she would have preferred it if he had kept crying, as she was unnerved by his silence as he sat in lukewarm water. He sat staring at the wall as she in-turn sat on the toilet seat with her head in the hands, occasionally glancing over to make sure he was still there. After she had gotten him dry and dressed in his decaying pyjamas and ready for bed Eileen reached for the book and opened it up without word. _

"_I don't want you to read me a story anymore," the little ebony-haired boy whispered glumly, pulling his blanket up around him like a cacoon. Eileen nodded though he was facing the opposite way – and put the back on his bedside table. She reached out and kissed him gently on the head. _

"_Why does Da hate me?" came his small voice. Eileen felt her heart break from deep within her. She had to turn away from him to hide the tears that had welled up in her eyes. _

"_He doesn't, Severus, he doesn't hate you… he __**loves **__you. You- he just- he's-"_

_Her voice broke and she wept as silently as she could. _

_A shifting of the springs told her that he had turned to face her… now he was watching her… watching her back tremble with sobs. _

"_I didn't mean to make you cry, Ma." he sounded positively terrified. _

"_You didn't make me cry, Sev. Mummy's just being daft,"_

"_Can you stay with me, Ma?"_

_She turned to see him looking straight up at her, his lip trembling. Eileen gave him as much of a smile as she could manage and held out her arms to him. "I'll stay with you."_

_She lay with him there tucked into her arms, stroking his hair and humming soothingly, trying anything to make him sleep. When she heard the deep breathing of a five-year-old boy in slumber, Eileen wiped at her soaking wet cheeks and took out her wand. Thousands of tiny stars and planets and galaxies covered the room from ceiling to floor, illuminating the dark with tiny shimmers of light. _

_She locked his door with the key that she always kept close to her. No one was going to disturb him. Not tonight._

_~*~  
_

_

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_

_~*~_

The last night at Hogwarts was certainly not the most comfortable. In fact, Severus could not recall having such a restless, sleepless night; even in fifth year after Potter had stripped him naked in front of Lily and half the school, and he had woken up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat… at least he had _gotten_ some sleep.

He couldn't even imagine facing Aurora's wrath that morning at breakfast – which was why he skipped it. Severus instead spent the morning feeling like a coward and reading in a dark corner of the library – all the while Madam Pince eyeing him with suspicion. When the time came for all the students to meet at the gates, he took one last look at the place which had been his home, his sanctuary, for the better part of seven years… a place that he had dreamed he would finally find solace in ever since his mother began telling stories about it… a place which, as it turned out, left him just as alone and just as despised as before.

He could only blame himself as he managed, yet again, to let Aurora walk past him on the Hogwarts Express without a word and avoiding his eye. He knew that his reluctance to try and make amends with the only person who had tolerated his presence for the whole seven years would cost him so dearly. Severus swore that he would always deny that, conversely… stubborn astrophysics drip that she was.

For the first time in his whole life, no one was there to pick him up from Kings Cross. _They must've finally gotten the message… _Severus thought to himself grumpily as he looked around for Aurora and just managed to spot her hastily leaving through the barrier with a grey-haired Indian woman. But before he grabbed his luggage and followed them, they were nowhere to be found. Many people were crowding the train station, making Muggles everywhere stop with morbid curiosity; there were embraces all around and the occasional nonsensical crying teenage girl or two… Severus gave his goodbyes to all but none of these people and instead found a toilet cubicle to apparate within.

The home that greeted him was silent and bare as he walked through its doors, but at first Severus took no notice. He was so hungry from missing breakfast that he grabbed the last two pieces of bread from the breadbin and stuffed them into his mouth; lack of taste did not concern him for he had grown up believing that food was food and all it did was keep you alive. Tobias had always said that they were too poor to "enjoy life like Toffs do"…

Only after an hour or so had passed of ever increasing silence did Severus even notice the piece of paper on the living room table.

~*~

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~*~

Far away from Spinners End, the cobbled streets of Derby and the mad rush of her grandson as he made his way to the Muggle hospital, Serafina Prince lay in anguish upon her rich mahogany bed; her usually immaculate black hair trickling all over the satin pillows like a waterfall of ink. As fierce as her resolve to end this was, she could not help but writhe over the thought of… His face… the Dark Lords face… his eyes searching to meet her own. She could hear her disgusting husband gasping loudly for air next to her, completely unperturbed that in less than six hours, his wife would have to explain face-to-face why she hadn't yet met the Dark Lords very specific demands.

Serafina peeled back the covers to let the corpse snore in peace; and minutes later she sat in her vast library, a cigarette in one poised hand and one of the many hundreds of books here in the other. She was a very well-read woman, naturally, but on this occasion Serafina stared in between the words… her eyes glazed over as her thoughts played around just on the inside of them.

_How am I going to do this?_

She hadn't felt good at entrapping her only grandchild like this; she'd have to be a monster if she did. She was not a monster. She simply couldn't find any other way. Serafina knew that what she was doing meant a life of servitude and the carrying out of endless horrid and evil acts for Severus… she half-assumed that were she present for the last eighteen years of his life and had grown to deeply care for him as a grandmother should, then she wouldn't have even thought to agree to this. But _that man _needed to pay. _Both _menneeded to pay. This was the only way everything could finally be made right; or, at least, that was the way Serafina saw things. The Dark Lord could promise them all the safety that the family sorely deserved.

"Mistress Sera?_"_

Serafina jolted out of her contemplation to see her House Elf (almost as ancient as her husband but a lot more appealing to the eye) at the entrance to the library, her little face full of concern upon seeing her Mistress outside of her chambers in her night attire, which was something of an exceptional experience.

"Go back to bed, Missy." Serafina mumbled over her cigarette.

"Yes, Mistress," the timid little elf didn't move from her spot at the doorway, however; she continued to blink worriedly. "… Mistress Sera looks very unwell. Shall Missy make Mistress some tea-?"

"That was _NOT A REQUEST_!" Serafina snapped loudly – throwing her closed book to the floor, the full weight of the thing giving a deafening resonant crack across the entire room. The elf gave a nervous squeak before turning and running away down the dark hall. Serafina rubbed her porcelain temples in circular motions; she was not usually so maltreative towards her servants (there was no need for such brutality… besides, she'd rather have servants readily willing to conform to her wishes than unhappy ones ready to pounce at any time), but at present she could not bare to be in anyone's company. As her previously guarded thoughts grew more clearer in her exhaustion, she thought of going back into bed with that half-corpse, wheezing and gasping and clutching onto the last few strands of life he had life in him; it made her hair stand on end. In fact, Serafina was sure that were it not for the gift of Occlumency, she would not have survived five minutes with the man.

Morning had come around as if it were minutes instead of hours.

Serafina had ordered Missy to help Atticus out of bed and get ready for the day (though why they even bothered was beyond her) while she prepared herself for the meeting that was now only around an hour away. She sat at her dresser almost laughing at herself for concentrating so much on her make-up… but there was something about the white powder, the immaculately shaped eyebrows, the smoky shadows that made her black eyes seem even more unfathomable… it felt almost as shielding as Occlumency itself. Serafina couldn't help but smirk at the thought.

As planned, a cloaked figure stood waiting for her as she apparated into the dark glen. With one swift movement, he threw out his wand at her – clearly jolted. "State your name!" the cloaked man hissed.

Serafina drew her black hood back to reveal herself; though with equally as black hair it barely made any difference. "I am Serafina Prince, wife of Atticus and matriarch of the Prince family… as pure a wizarding dynasty as anyone will find."

The man followed her lead and threw back his own hood; through his ivory mask she could spot an unamused smirk.

"Or so you would like to think, Mrs. Prince."

Serafina sneered in displeasure at the boy's barefaced impertinence.

"I can assure you, masked man number five, I did not come here for a casual natter with an infantile adolescent. Especially one who is evidently more engrossed in his hair than creating intruder charms," Serafina bit, with a contemptuous glance over his well-groomed tresses. The blonde man's expression darkened to further heights.

"Ah, yes… I see where your grandson got it from," he replied plainly. He stalked away through the dense grass of the glen – and Serafina followed closely at his heels, her mind now completely shut in the deep meditative trance that only Occlumency could offer.

After about half an hour of trekking through the thick woodlands, they came to rest in a deeply covered hollow next to a muddy lake that seemed entirely infested with insects. It was the least likely place in the world were one would think to find Serafina Prince, and she whole-heartedly approved of it. Though she knew it was not to hide her herself, but another man… and he was here too.

"You found our guest in good health, I assume, Lucius?" the Dark Lord murmured from the other side of the small lake.

The blonde man named Lucius exchanged a glare with Serafina before answering. "Yes, my Lord. She is very eager to explain why she hasn't fulfilled what you asked of her yet."

If looks could massacre, the entire population of the county in which they met would have dropped dead on the spot. Serafina had to step forward a few meters so that the temptation to strangle him could lessen somewhat, and her mind could stay clear. "My Lord, is it necessary to have such an inconsequential teenager here with us…? Especially one who twists truths in front of your very eyes." She asked of him.

"_I'm_ the truth twister? Why don't you come join the Blacks, _your supposed family, _for dinner sometime and let them decide-"

"Lucius, your brash words displease your Master," Voldemort hissed, moving further towards them with each slow step. "Leave us. Wait for me at the meeting place… we have initiations to prepare for."

"Yes, my Master." And he was gone.

This wasn't the first time Serafina had been left alone with the Dark Lord, but last time she had been full of promises and he had been full of answers… now she knew that Voldemort saw her as something of a grovelling servant, full of excuses, and nothing like the strong alley who had first met with him three years ago; it made her feel physically nauseous.

"Time is running out for you, isn't it Serafina Prince?" he stated matter-of-factly, Magiking himself across the lake as if he were merely walking across the solid ground on which they both stood.

"My Lord, we both knew that would take some time for Severus to gain my trust enough to realise that the path we offer him is the best one."

"Precisely why you have not departed this world at present," Voldemort spoke as if the words simply rolled off his tongue. "I would have hoped your meeting with him would not have ended so… abysmally."

His eyes penetrated the black chasms of her own, but she grew deep satisfaction in the knowledge that he could go no further than her eyes. She desired so badly to tell him that it had been far from abysmal, that she had finally managed to cast her eyes and speak with the boy whom she had yearned to meet since the day he was born, the day that she had become a grandmother; and that now she had an image of Severus in her mind she had grown more and more attached to him every day… but Serafina assumed such an answer would be lost on Lord Voldemort.

"It will get better, my Lord, I promise."

"And seeing that your promise is a life or death one for you, my friend, I am inclined to let you continue with your mission."

"Thank you. I won't fail you."

Voldemort gave an icy laugh. "If you do, you shan't be around to know, will you? … But your blood-traitor daughter will."

_Empty your mind… empty…_

"I am taking a risk Serafina. Trusting your words, your promises that your grandson will be of a great asset to your Lord Voldemort's cause. Why, part of me still believes that I should simply murder your petty little whore of a daughter at this very moment… have her worthless existence over and done with – it would be more of a charity than a crime, I believe."

Serafina felt her breathing grow harsher. But if she were to crack, the consequences would be disastrous – and all of this would be for nothing.

"Does that upset you, Serafina?" Voldemort asked, by the smile on his face she could tell that he greatly hoped it did… he was aching to glimpse pain today; there was no doubt in her mind. She began relaxing every muscle in her body, slowing her breathing… _empty your mind…_

"She is my daughter." Serafina replied austerely. He could make of that what he wished.

Voldemort's lip curled into a vicious sneer, he was clearly contented for the time being. "Good, good. Remember, you are now bound to me forever, servant! The tie of the Unbreakable Vow you made your Dark Lord will never break. Once Severus joins us, he must remain loyal. I am sure you know this."

"I am…"

"If he strays, if he runs from our world like his coward of a mother… Serafina, you will breathe your last."

"I know."

"And have no reservation, my valued friend – I _will_ slaughter them both after your own demise. I will butcher your daughter in the most painful of ways in front of her only son's eyes as his punishment; and then, after her body has begun to rot away and he can smell her death and his failure - I shall graciously relieve the traitor of his own futile life. The Princes shall be no more."

_No… _

"Severus will not fail you."

"Yes. Let us hope so, for your sake. As a lasting token – remember this: if he refuses your requests, consider my… _terminal promises_ unchanged."

_No… _

"You already have my word, my Lord. My life, and the lives of my family rest on it."

"Very well. Get out of my sight; I have initiations from _willing_ followers to instigate. I shall be in contact in three months; if he is not ready and willing to become the Death Eater that you promise Lord Voldemort he will, consider the Vow broken. _Go._"

And Serafina went. As soon as she apparated into the entrance hall of her home, the curtains of her mind opened up and the emotions came flooding back in to an intolerable level… it was a common after-effect of a skilled Occlumens… her body shattered with the full force of what Voldemort had told her.

The last thing she recalled as she lost consciousness was seeing her ten-year-old daughter smiling at her from the top of the stairs, a time before innocence had been so unjustly ripped away from her.

~*~

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**Thanks for all your reviews so far.**


	13. Your Usual Snape Reunion

**Pureblood Prince Chapter XIII – Your Usual Snape Reunion**

_If she had looked back on it all now, she would hardly believe any of it… but there had been a time where Tobias didn't loathe magic. Or, at least, there had been a time when he hadn't loathed it _as much. _When Eileen first began her life with her husband, there had been no need to use it. After all, she had no ties to keep with the magical world any more, not after leaving her parents iron grip. Tobias would have hardly believed that she was even remotely capable of any sort of witchcraft if Eileen hadn't dragged her old Ollivander's case out of the attic to physically prove herself._

"_Look…"_

_A transparent and shimmering bluebird took off from the edge of her wand and fluttered around Tobias, who gaped at it wide-eyed. _

"_How in the heck are yer __**doing **__that?" he demanded. _

_Slowly, over the years, he had begun to accept it, despite never understanding it. She knew that he only hid his contempt for her gift deep down because she vowed to never use it against him, and he did love her. Despite it all, they did love each other. That's what Eileen had to keep telling herself._

**Beep beep… beep beep…**

And here he lay, the man she still loved. The man she had almost killed. He was completely still and deep in unconsciousness… horrible as it may have appeared to any outsider, Eileen was almost appreciative of his state for the moment. It gave her time just to look at him and remember.

_The day that she had run away from her parents had been one of the happiest of her life; conquered only by the day she became a Snape, which in turn would be conquered by the birth of their son. Tobias had opened the door to his council flat to find her standing in the pouring rain, shopping wet. He seemed at a complete loss for words._

"_Eileen?"_

_She fell into his arms shivering and soaked and unbound. There had been no explanation other than she could never speak to her parents again. As time grew, Eileen would tell Tobias everything, every sordid detail about her family… but tonight he did not question. He was never pushy with her and that was what she loved. They had spent the rest of that wintery night drinking the same cheap and disgusting tea that they did when they first met, tea that would always made her smile whenever she drunk it. From that moment on, she was solely his._

The much older and angrier Tobias shifted in his sleep and Eileen was mentally bumped back into present-day once more. He didn't wake… the nurses had told her he wouldn't wake for a few days, give or take. No one could possibly tell by the placid and serene way he looked that they had almost destroyed one another.

Eileen heaved a sigh and moved her fatigued and aching body over to his, she lay down in the hospital bed and rested her head in the alcove of his shoulder. She knew wouldn't ever leave him… she couldn't. Their insecurities and fears had bound them long ago. In some perverse and twisted way - they belonged together.

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Muggle hospitals were nothing at all like St. Mungo's. Despite having equally as sick patients in the wizarding wards, there was never the same air of death and illness such as those of the decrepit wards of Derby City General Hospital. He supposed he shouldn't put all Muggle hospitals into this category… merely the ones that he and his working-class family were allowed into, all of which reeked of neglect.

He didn't apparate into the hospital grounds of course, as much as he wanted to. Being brought up more or less as a Muggle, Severus never truly appreciated until now how difficult it would have been for his mother to integrate herself into their community. He sat on the rickety bus clutching the note left for him at Spinner's End so tight that his fingernails began to dig into his palms – though he was far too incensed to feel the sting.

_Sev,_

_I had to take your father to Derby City General… had a fall… went the night before you got back. Didn't want to pull you out of school for it as they tell me he'll be fine. Your choice if you want to visit. Been shopping. _

_Love you, _

_Mum._

Had that fool of a woman stayed with him at the hospital _all this time_? He knew what must have happened, it had happened numerous times before; Tobias must've come home drunk after spending all his earnings and fallen over a gutter on the way there – and had possibly wet himself on the way down. Yes, Severus was so very proud to share half of his DNA with that man…

As he approached the dilapidated reception desk in a very mismatched array of Muggle clothes, he couldn't help but give a small malevolent smirk… he hoped that Tobias has managed to injure himself in a suitably embarrassing fashion. He couldn't wait to see the look on his face as his "useless" wizard son entered the room, revelling in his father's failure and profound misjudgements.

"Tobias Snape."

The middle-aged receptionist gaped up at him with a curious look (it was nothing he wasn't used to) and begun to type into the computer so fast that her fingers looked like mere blurs across the keyboard.

"Er… Snape… Tobias Sn - ah, yes, take the lifts through those brown doors there. He's on level 4 – ward 4C."

Severus nodded brusquely and made his way upward. The prickly nip of Muggle antiseptic in the air was so unpleasant he momentarily screwed his face up in a futile effort to rid himself of the smell; it was… _what was Borealis even thinking, that I would become one of these poor underappreciated souls who work here day in day out?... _Severus shook himself away from the grating thoughts of her and the replacement scent of plums that had just infiltrated his consciousness. Antiseptic was better.

He found his mother curled up next to his father on the hospital bed, she seemed to be soundly asleep despite the awkward looking position she was in; she looked paler and thinner and sicker than he had ever remembered. He could see that Tobias was hooked up to various Muggle monitoring devices and had some sort of bandage on his head or other, but it did not faze him in the slightest. In fact, Severus could feel nothing but seething, bubbling rage at the sight of that bastard man actually receiving _care _for his injuries, where his bruised, sickly, skeleton of a mother had absolute nought for quintuple as many.

_And she's __**lying **__there__in that monsters arms; I can't believe it. _

Not wanting to wake either of them, Severus gave a disgusted glower and backed out of the room with the intention of heading back to Spinners End… he had, after all, made an appearance and therefore would not be privy to any guilt for letting his mother down. His duty was done. They'd obviously prefer to be left alone by the looks of them.

Unfortunately, this was the very same time that a middle-aged and very busy looking nurse holding some sort of intravenous line had entered the room. Before Severus could get away from the room, she had opened her mouth; "oh, hello! You must be Toby's son?" She looked over towards her patient and his visitor and clucked, "Aw, Mr. and Mrs. Snape, look at 'em…" like she had known them both for years. Mr. and Mrs. Snape's son repeated his glower from earlier.

Her greeting wasn't a loud one by any means, but his mother had never been a deep sleeper. Eileen Snape rose up her head from slumber; as he caught her eye he witnessed something rather bizarre given the circumstances… her face lit up in such a way that it very well could have been taken for the happiest moment of her life.

"Severus!" she cried, sweeping her chaotic black hair out of her face. The nurse looked rather bemused at the mention of his odd name, but continued with her duties. Completely ignoring the staff's existence, Eileen had managed to run across the room and throw her arms around her son before he could manage to take a breath. He had grown to hate her embraces… they were not 'motherly' in the slightest (though Severus was not sure what that even entailed, he knew was that she was not it) she was always so cold, and her frame so tiny and skeletal… as if she would snap in half if he ever reciprocated.

As usual, he stood there awkwardly, arms straight at his sides, as she held onto him tightly. She drew back for a second and looked at his face, Severus fixed his eyes firmly on the nurse drawing up a drug into a large syringe.

"Look at you," Eileen said, her voice almost choking with heavy emotion. "Don't you dare leave us for a whole year again, I barely recognise you for the man you turned into!" She embraced him again, kissing his cheek fiercely.

For the first time, he had a true look at his father in the bed, the nurse had since left the room to leave the 'family' in peace; Severus hated that he looked so vulnerable, so innocent of any wrongdoing. He hated it. He hated _him._

"What happened?" he finally mumbled.

Eileen released him from her grasp. She stood there for a moment, seemingly unable to speak.

"Head butted a lamppost, did he?" Severus prompted. "Stumbled home covered in blood and piss like last time, did he? How long did you spend cleaning it up this time, mother?"

"Sev…"

"I don't know even know why I came here. I care as much about what happened to _him _as I do the patient in the next room… a lot less, in all sincerity."

"… But _I _am glad you came here," Eileen replied. "Oh, I've missed you, Sev. I've missed you dreadfully; I wished so much that would come home for the holidays - your grandma had quite a time consoling me on Christmas day..."

She motioned for him to sit down on the chair next to the bed with her… but always and forever uncomfortable when faced with such emotional declarations of love, Severus had long ago decided that the only way out of such uncomfortable situations was to ignore them completely and continue ranting instead.

"It's a crime!" he spat bitterly, "a _crime _that _he _is taken to a bloody hospital the moment he gets a scratch on his empty drunk head and yet when he beats _you_ to a pulp no-one lifts a finger for you!"

"It's not what you think."

"No, it's _never _what I think. Would you stop treating me like a child for once, woman?"

Eileen rubbed her head forcefully, clearly in distress. He would have felt ashamed of himself for talking to her the way he was if he didn't feel so correct, which he almost always was.

"Sev, shush."

"Don't _shush_ me, Eileen!"

And then she snapped.

"How _dare _you talk to your own mother like that!" she pushed him behind the door, and though she could possibly be the most physically weakest thing on the planet, Severus was instantly silenced into a child-like submission. "I thought I'd taught you to be a respectful and civilised person, not a spoiled brat on a relentless high horse!" her face was full of parental condemnation.

"I'm not-!"

"You can stop pretending that you know everything about me, because you certainly don't, my darling. I'm older and wiser and I've been to hell and back for this family_, _so you can just _stop. _Please..."

He stopped.

"I know your father has done some terrible things, I am _no _fool," Eileen continued; she spoke in barely a whisper, Severus had to lean downwards to hear her. "But there others who have done _far, far _worse things than even he could possibly imagine. Besides, he had nopart in… _this._"

Severus was genuinely interested for the first time since he had walked into the room. "Who…" and then a fantastic thought crossed his mind, "… _you _did this?"

By the way she stared silently into his wide eyes, barely even breathing, he knew his wild stab in the dark to be true.

"What did you do?"

"Your father's elderly and very distressed parents are in the canteen - don't look so happy Severus, for God's sake."

But he wasn't taking any notice of her warnings. "What did you do?" he asked excitedly, as if he were a child being given the promise of a new toy. It was the first time in years he had felt genuinely proud of her.

"I…" Eileen closed her eyes and pursed her lips; she took a deep breath and started again in an almost inaudible whisper. "You must _promise _me that this stays between us… if the Ministry gets wind of this…"

_The Ministry? _Severus grew more and more ecstatic by the second.

"... I just threw out my hands," Eileen continued, tears welling up in her red and tired eyes. "I didn't mean to! He… he was like a vicious animal… I would never have fought him if he hadn't said such _cruel _things about you – his own son for God's sake. It was just a reaction, Sev."

Severus jolted so much that he reached out and grasped her gaunt shoulder. "_Magic?" _

Eileen nodded glumly. "I didn't curse him! I would _never._.. he fell down the stairs before I could do anything. And that's how-" she made a sweeping gesture over the bed, "-_this _happened." She let her arm to fall heavily back to her side.

There was a moment where neither of them spoke. Identical black eyes bored into one another… one filled with tears, the other filled with pride. And then Severus did something that was, in his opinion… completely off the wall.

It wasn't any sort of unyielding embrace by any normal loving family standard; in fact it was nothing more than him stepping forward and awkwardly draping one arm around her shoulder for a couple of seconds at most. But it was more than enough for them.

He spent the next hour telling her about his last year at school; they always had this discussion at the end of every year and this year was no different. As always, he casually omitted the existence of such perilous female associates as Lily Evans and Aurora Sinistra.

By the time his paternal grandparents had arrived back, along with Severus's Uncle (who closely resembled his younger brother Tobias minus the drug addict and son hating) – he decided it would was time to head back to Spinners End. He said his goodbyes to his beleaguered looking mother (despite first pleading with her to come back home and enjoy some quiet solitude while it lasted) and left the building post-haste, breathing in the fresh, cool air with such appreciation as the front doors of the hospital slide automatically open.

Air that was not shared by Muggles who possessed his last name was sweet air indeed.

~*~

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**AN: Sorry I've been so slack with pushing out chapters! Uni's finished now so I should be getting more out very soon, however I was a little bogged down with this one - I don't do well with 'transitional' chapters quite as much ;) This one is short but I'm attempting to shorten them all down substantially as I felt they were getting a bit too "much". I hope you all enjoy this one. Reviews would be sorely appreciated. Thank you :) And as always, thanks for all your reviews so far :)**


	14. The witch, the elf and the entrapment

**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XIV**** - ****The Witch, the Elf and the entrapment.**

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Exactly two weeks later from the joyous welcome home party that the Snape's hosted, one sole Sinistra lay on her dark bottle green bed, in the house shared by her two adult brothers, feeling very singular. She wasn't quite sure if it was because she actually was _in _a single bed and thus took the meaning very literally, or if she really did feel this annoyingly pitiable… and if so, she hated herself for it. Correction: she hated Severus Snape. That was what she hated.

How dare he run up to the Astronomy tower and just _stare _at her! What kind of man did that? Not that he was any sort of man… and for the love of Merlin, why did it have to be him of all people to walk in on her in _that _kind of state? It was probably the most anyone had cried over him his whole life, knowing his very poor judge of character in his 'friends'… Aurora clicked her tongue… gee, wonder why that was? Could it be that he was so utterly unbearable to be in the same room with for more than five minutes? Could be. She hated how weak and deplorable he had made her feel; it wasn't very befitting for a Slytherin female at all.

"Aurora!"

There was a loud knock at the door. "_Not interested_…" Aurora hissed with the pillow over her face, her sounds therefore muffled and inaudible but she didn't care. The door creaked open slightly and the pillow was unjustly ripped from her face.

"_Leon_!"

The somewhat perturbed face of her eldest brother bore down upon her. "You've been lying in the same place since I left for work, Rore; just 'cause it's the holidays doesn't mean…" Leon Sinistra's eyes flicked over onto what was laying across his sister's chest, "… what's that?" he asked in repugnance.

Suddenly remembering that she had fallen asleep with the thing on top of her, Aurora quickly snapped the ancient looking book shut and tangled it under her arms. "It's a thing with words in it that people with brains like to read in order to gain a better understanding of the universe," she replied irritably. "You wouldn't know this, of course, having never opened one in your life."

"This is my house you're living in, sis. I wouldn't try to be smart." Leon threw a rather weighty envelope down by his sister's side. "Looks like the Academy accepted your application then, future Astronomer."

Aurora picked up the parcel and squeezed it almost lovingly in her hands. _No, just because it's big it doesn't mean they want you… they could have simply added in a few copies of Heads In The Galaxies – Astronomers Monthly as a condolence gesture… _"Yes, well, wish many happy returns to me when I've had a chance to read it, will you?" she retorted promptly, but with an affectionate smirk. Leon Sinistra gave a simple roll of the eyes and excused himself; Aurora dutifully waited for his footsteps to disappear before throwing the parcel to the side, and instead shoved the old copy of _Advanced Potion Making _into her Hogwarts case, and swore at it when she caught the skin of her finger in between the lock.

"Prick!" Aurora promptly delivered a swift kick to the case and hoped that somehow, somewhere, through the sheer power of voodoo, that the slimy git felt it right between his ribs. She fell to the floor and fleetingly sucked on her bleeding finger roughly. Stupid book. Stupid, stupid book. Stupid book that scared her so much she took one look at it and felt the stupid yearning to steal it away from her stupid Slytherin comrade before he did anything stupid… and now she felt like the stupid one. From the looks of all the messy scribbles within its pages, he had essentially _created _those enchantments; and if he was gifted enough to _invent spells _and challenge potion formulas created by the most elite of all wizarding kind, he must have certainly been bright enough to keep copies of his handiwork. Probably didn't even realise that the damned hardback had gone astray.

_For enemies… _those two words scribbled in such harsh letters had scared her the most. _Sectumsempra? _It sounded less like the desperate attempt of a teenage boy to make a bunch of bullies pay for playing tricks on him at school and more like the makings of a fully fledged dark wizard. Now she felt absolutely harebrained for panicking and stealing his book; as if this meek and mild act would stop him from becoming the Death Eater it seemed he was "destined" to be.

Aurora screwed up her face and mentally scratched out that last thought… "_Destiny"! Do you hear yourself you stupid cow? That's almost Gryffindor talk right there. _

She heaved a great, therapeutic sigh and pushed herself up. Moving over to open yet another locked case in which she kept piles of letters sent to and from Hogwarts over the years. It seemed the only sensible thing to do would be to burn that book, have the whole thing over and done with. That or give it up to the authorities to use as evidence against him if he were ever to be captured… Aurora supposed she could reap a nice reward from that. A nice big pile of galleons couldn't spit in the face of seven years of camaraderie, after all.

No. There would be only one way to end this alliance between her and her old Slytherin friend… she would go to his dwelling and give him back his book in person – no sentiment, no poignant goodbyes, just a stoic gesture that would bring closure to this mess. He could do whatever the hell he wanted with it. Aurora tipped the box of letters upside down and searched frantically for it… and all of a sudden there it was, hidden beneath two letters, one from her Aunt and the other a Hogwarts list detailing her fifth year O.W.L. results:

_From: Severus Snape _

_52 Spinners End_

_Derbyshire_

_To: Aurora Sinistra_

_17 Hertford Road_

_Enfield, Middlesex_

_Aurora, _

_I thank you for your inquiry, but rest assured I am quite able to obtain all the Astronomy notes I need from my own books. You know you really needn't bother going through all that trouble if all you wanted to ask me was for Potions notes for your N.E.W.T's… able as you are, I realised from the moment of our partnership in third year that you could do with a bit of assistance from me if you want to achieve a high Outstanding in the subject. _

"Bastard."

_Holidays have been abysmal, as always… you really shouldn't waste your time asking anymore. I hope yours find you in a much better state - which I assume is highly unlikely, Borealis, as you've probably spent the whole two months quite literally staring into space. _

_I have attached various notes for you should you require them._

_Severus._

Aurora then promptly ripped off the left-hand corner of the parchment containing his address and shoved it into the pockets of the Muggle jeans that she was forced to wear outside. There would be time to do this, but not now. In turn, she opened the package from the Academy and, smiling warmly and momentarily forgetting the people who had brought a significant part of her holidays down a few notches, made her way with the acceptance letter down to the kitchen to show her brothers.

~*~

* * *

~*~

"Mistress Sera?"

"Missy…"

"Would Mistress like some… some coffee? For Mistresses head?"

Serafina Prince had to smirk slightly from her pillow. "No, Missy. I do not think stimulants are good idea in my present condition."

She turned her head unhurriedly to face her House Elf, pain shooting through every inch of her body as she did so, to see Missy standing by her bedside with a look of child-like confusion on her face.

"No coffee." Serafina explained simply.

Missy continued to blink worriedly at her owner. So much time was spent between the black eyes boring into the beady chocolate ones that Serafina began to feel prickly with irritation once more. "Go and take care of Master Atticus!" she finally spat.

"No, Mistress, I cannot leave you!" Missy seemed on the verge of weeping. "For days Missy nursed Mistress Sera from finding her on the floor of the entrance hall, and Missy has not been able to help her Mistress return back to her usual good health. Missy is a failure…" a tear rolled down the elf's cheek as she looked sadly to the floor.

Serafina sighed sincerely and drew her black hair out of her face; she stared at her waxy, sickly self through the colossal crystal mirror across from her side of the bed. "I am old Missy," she exclaimed sadly – she could almost see her once deeply striking dark looks withering away with each passing day, though she hoped that was the ill health and not her age. "It will take me longer to heal."

"Master Atticus is almost thirty years Mistresses elder and Master is still- still-"

"Breathing? Well, I suppose that is open to interpretation. Now that will do, Missy. I order you to leave me."

"Yes, Mistress Sera…" Missy made her way slowly to the door, so slowly that she was almost dragging her feet. Serafina watched her from the bed and knew that there was still something at the back of her servants mind. She needn't have asked regardless, for Missy turned at the door, opened her mouth one or two times and spoke once more. "…Mistress?"

"_What?" _

"Perhaps Missy can… contact…"

"What? Contact what? Out with it, or leave me." Serafina hissed touchily. Her nausea was now worse than ever and all of her anti-emetic potion had been drained.

"Contact Mistress Eily?"

The name was like a blunt knife through her stomach. "… _what?!"_

Missy gave a squeak of fear; but still, though juddering with trepidation, stood her ground. "M-Missy just thought that Mistress S-Sera would feel more comfortable and at ease i-if her daughter came to look after her in her sickness…?"

"Eileenwouldn't set foot in Prince Manor if she was passing by with a pail of water and we were all on fire! Do not talk such nonsense again to me, Missy, or you will regret it!" Serafina began to wretch as the room spun around her in her anger. The terrified Elf needed no further persuasion; she vanished without a trace from the opulent bedroom.

The gash from her head dribbled a few spots of blood from underneath its dressing and Serafina felt as if she were to pass out once more. She tried to keep as perfectly still as possible, holding the bandage tightly and knowing that she would have to get up in a few minutes to prepare another one, and also to prepare more anti-emetic potion… if only her…

Serafina's ever-ticking mind had now shoved itself right back into place, with such a force that if anyone was in the room with her at present they could have almost heard a _click_.

_If only her grandson were here. _Her only daughter may not want to have anything to do with her, but what would her daughter's _son _say if she refused an invitation to care for her 'frail, sick and defenseless' mother calling out for help? Oh yes, it was a wild stab in the dark and there was every chance he really _was _as loyal to her as he said he was… but it was the best tactic that Serafina currently had to entice him back into their world; to the world of the wizard, and a world of revenge on all those who were disgrace to the very name of it.

Serafina gave herself a moment to compose herself in her own delight, and summoned her brilliant House Elf back once again. This would require some delicate tact, and a splash of Slytherin cunning…

"Missy!" she called with a wave of her wand, in less than an instant the devoted House Elf apparated by her side.

"Mistress! What is it?"

"I was foolish to have turned your idea away so suddenly," Serafina explained calmly. "Your idea was, perhaps, not as far-fetched as my ill-mannered temper would have just had you believe."

"Thank you, Mistress. Missy only aims to make Mistress happy and healthy once more!"

"Indeed you do, and for that I thank you," Serafina said graciously, slowly propping herself upon her silk pillows. "Now, if you please - fetch me ink, a quill and parchment at once… I have quite a special letter to write."

~*~

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**Thank you all so much for your reviews so far. **


	15. White Picket Fence

**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XV -White Picket Fence**

_Warnings: swearing, sexual allusions._**  
**

For the first time in years, Eileen Snape's family home was a peaceful one.

The past two weeks in Spinners End had actually, astoundingly, been… almost _bearable. _It was shockingly almost bearable. Almost… pleasant. Tobias continued to heal in the sanctuary of their bedroom – rarely coming downstairs (and even when he did so, he was so subdued from the painkillers and sober from being barred from drinking that even Severus barely noticed him), and this newfound freedom meant that Eileen herself was completely free to unwind in her own home… without the agonizing wait for Tobias to come home from work, wondering if he would be in a decent mood or a vicious one. It was as blissful as she could ever have hoped bliss could possibly be.

There were evenings where she would sit with her son after putting Toby to peaceful sleep with her draughts, and they would eat dinner and then settle down wordlessly in the two run-down floral couches reading their respective books. Not a word was spoken between them as they mutely turned the pages, but Eileen had never felt closer to Severus than when they read together, sharing their passion for knowledge and especially the sciences. She felt she could almost be something resembling a mother nowadays, and Tobias something resembling a father; it was as close as they could get anyway… thiswas _her _family, and she loved it, _them,_ more than life itself.

"How's the head, Toby?" she asked upon leaving Severus to his literature downstairs and retiring to bed.

"There's nought wrong with my head, woman." Tobias mumbled, turning over to face his wife. Eileen mentally chuckled – he could be set alight and burned at the stake and he'd still tell everyone to 'stop bleeding fussing', it was the working-class Yorkshireman in him. "I wish yer'd let me get back to work."

"The doctor said you needed a couple weeks of bed rest."

"That quack doctor doesn't bloody well know me, that was for pansy arse men like him that advice was."

Eileen rolled her eyes affectionately and sat on the edge of the bed, pulling off her pale blue top and jeans and reaching for her nightgown. "Say that when you've ceased the doses of painkillers, will you Toby?"

"Say that when yer've got nothing to eat, will you Ei?"

Eileen turned to face him, expecting yet another row; but to her pleasant bewilderment he was grinning at her. It had been established long ago when he awoke in the hospital that he had absolutely no recollection of how he managed to injure himself… the only two people who knew were Severus and Eileen, and they were not about to divulge that information to anyone. She had told the staff and his family that it had been a mere fall… though Tobias was clearly under the impression that he had been drunk again and was almost _appreciative _of Eileen for keeping it under wraps. The remorse would have been totally overwhelming were it not for the thought of what he _would _do if he found out the truth. That she had in fact almost killed him with wandless magic.

"Thanks," Tobias continued, Eileen frowned in misunderstanding, "for, yer know…" he shrugged, "…thanks, Princess."

She vaguely understood what he was thanking her for, but the reasoning didn't really matter. She couldn't actually believe what she was hearing so she felt less guilt than she thought she would; Eileen left her nightgown upon the bed and simply leant forward and kissed him. A lot more than once.

"You - do this now – " Toby garbled through each breath of their kisses, " when I'm – poorly…" he didn't even wince when he rolled on top of her, however. Eileen supposed he really _was_ better, but she was not about to tell him that; struggling as they were with finances (as ever), these past few days where Toby was at home and not allowed to go out and get completely sauced were some of the best she'd had in a decade.

"You can't deny – _ah…" _Eileen caught her breath as she felt him between her, only this time it felt much, much more pleasant. "– It'll make you feel – better –"

It was mainly thanks to feeling as if she had been given her old Tobias back that Eileen actually took pleasure in making love to him tonight. No horrid memories of that… Ministry wizarding man Arcturus Black, no staring up at a Muggle man who barely recognised his own wife from drink, now it was just the two of them, both in their own right minds, just two people who loved each other despite it all. He loved her… he saved her, so he loved her… didn't he?

They remained unclothed together for the rest of the night, which made Eileen slightly edgy but not edgy enough to pull her night dress right back on like she usually did – most times she wouldn't even take the thing off when they made love (if you could even call it that) – but she had been brought so far over the edge tonight that she hardly had had one thought of how underweight and unwomanly her figure was; Eileen lay wrapped in the blankets with her husband and felt dimly attractive for once in her life.

It was about six' o'clock in the morning when a loud screech outside her window shocked her awake.

~*~

* * *

~*~

Eileen sat bolt upright in bed and blinked furiously a couple dozen times. _What the…? _She glanced to her right towards Tobias, but from what she could make out in the Derbyshire murky, early morning light was that he was still peacefully slumbering – on his stomach with his head to the side as he always slept. Suddenly the screech sounded again, only less shrill as it did moments ago and Eileen jumped once more. She knew that sound…

"Ungh…" Toby mumbled from the pillows, "Time to clock off s'it?", his head then promptly made contact with the bed again and he issued a loud snore. Eileen managed an amused Prince-like scoff in her trepidation and decided to get up, pulling on her nightdress and robe as she left Toby to his considerably unimaginative dreams.

The hallway was dark, quiet and cold as always; she leant over the banister to see if there was any light coming from downstairs but it was as quiet and dark as the rest of the house; Severus was obviously not up yet. She turned to her right and opened the door on the top of the hallway as if in slow motion, desperate not to make any noise. Sure enough, from the limited light seeping in through the bottom of the curtain, she could make out her sons silhouette and his shambolic black hair spilled out upon the pillow… he was breathing slowly and deeply, clearly still in deep sleep. Eileen allowed herself a few maternal seconds to look at him before heading down to the kitchen; she decided she was going to make them all a hot breakfast for a change.

She was halfway through the lounge heading towards the kitchen when the hooting creature flew at her.

Eileen gave a petrified yelp and ducked at the thing flew over her head and landed on top of the bookshelf, where it perched itself calmly. Ah, so it _was _an owl… thank God Tobias wasn't here to witness it… Eileen frowned up at the beautiful black thing; she had made it specifically clear to the wizarding authorities that they were to receive everything by post, it was a rare sight indeed to see an actual owl sitting in her living room with a letter in its beak. She was almost as shocked to see it as a Muggle would.

"Where did you come from then, you pretty little thing?" she coaxed, holding out her arm for the thing. Instead of flying onto her arm, the owl merely dropped the envelope onto the floor in front of her and took off up the chimney in a whirlwind of flapping feathers. It had obviously been waiting for someone to collect the package. Eileen gave a quick suspicious glance towards the door to make extra sure Tobias hadn't witnessed any of this and bent down to pick up the letter.

_Severus Snape_

_52 Spinners End_

_Derbyshire_

_That's interesting… _Eileen thought. She did not recognise the handwriting but it was certainly feminine in appearance. She loosely recalled a few owls flying into Spinners End over the holidays, and while she could not remember if it had been at all similar to the script on this particular envelope, they had all been written in very feminine handwriting; Eileen put the letter in the pocket of her dressing robe, out of reach of her spouse, and smiled to herself. Perhaps there was something her son wasn't telling her…

It was around seven thirty when Severus came downstairs. Eileen gave him a warm-hearted smile from the kitchen and in return he gave her a look that could more or less be mistaken for the look one gave when visiting a mentally unhinged person in an institution. He sniffed the air.

"What are you doing?" he asked, seemingly genuinely perturbed by the vision of his mother actually cooking something on the stove.

"Well, I believe I'm cooking bacon but I could be wrong… you never know what it is when you ask for the cheapest in the butcher," Eileen responded. Severus leant over the kitchen table with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow.

"You bought bacon? Occasion?"

"No occasion, I just felt we could we do with a bit of overindulgence for a change," Eileen replied, "or you could pull out those stale Rice Krispies you love so much, Sev."

"…Bacon is fine. You needn't have had to get up early to do this all by yourself, Mum. I can cook my own food."

"Haven't you turned into quite the self-sufficient gentleman..."

"Is that a joke? Or are you legitimately surprised that some people don't see women as inferior beings? Because if you are, than that's rather sad."

Eileen sighed sadly, wishing it was a joke. "It is rather sad."

"It is."

It was also rather asinine over how proud Eileen was at this moment - that he was her son. She wasn't used to many men saying things like that. And that was certainly sad.

"Oh," Eileen suddenly remembered the letter that she had put in her dressing robe pocket. "I have something for you – hang on – watch the food, Sev." She walked swiftly up the stairs and into hers and Tobias's bedroom (where he was still snoring away) and rummaged through the drawer.

When she came back and handed her son the letter, she simply could not keep the smile off her face. "An owl came this morning for you," Eileen said lightheartedly, handing him the envelope with a huge uncharacteristic grin. Severus took it from her hands with great consternation and swept his gaze upon the front of it.

"Who's it from?" he asked, frowning with suspicion at her.

"Well _I _don't know," Eileen beamed, returning to the stove-top and shoveling bits of bacon onto cracked plates. "_You _should know."

"I think _you_ know by the looks of you."

Eileen threw up her hands in a declaration of innocence. "I honestly, sincerely have no idea. Now, I'm going to take this food up to your father – you can put as much as you like on yours, the rest is all in the pan."

She left Severus and the letter in private and made her way back upstairs to the sleeping Toby. As she set the plate down by his bedside, he stirred.

"Mmmm," he mumbled, and then caught her gaze. "Mornin', Princess."

"Morning, my love," Eileen leant down and shared a fervent kiss with him, feeling so happy that his breath didn't stink of bourbon for once. "I've made some bacon for you… I'll leave it here shall I?"

Tobias glanced over at the bedside table, "blimey, Ei, what's gotten into you?" then he added with a cheeky lop-sided grin: "apart from last night, I mean-"

Eileen smacked him gently on the shoulder. "Tobias John Snape_, _don't be so vulgar." But she said it with a pinkish hue on her pasty cheeks.

"Ah don't pretend yer don't lust after scoundrel blokes, woman, I know you get off on it you dirty-"

"_Toby_…" this time Eileen's voice flashed a real warning and for once, he actually shut up; possibly because he was still waking up and didn't have the energy for a full-blown row. She cleared her throat, "how are you feeling today?"

"Nought wrong-"

'-with you, I know." Eileen said in tandem with him. "Well, perhaps you'd like to get up for lunch this afternoon, then? I'll get Severus to-"

She heard a groan and it incensed her once more.

"_Please, _Toby," she implored. "_Please _be good to him. He did visit you an awful lot when you were in hospital…" _well it was only a half-lie…_ Eileen presumed that one time was indeed an awful lot for him.

"I_ will_ be good to him," and this declaration would have made Eileen kiss him yet again if Toby hadn't snidely added: "…if he stops being a waste of time and space…" under his breath at the end of it.

_Hah! Look who's talking! _If only Eileen had her wand. She would have jabbed him in the eye.

"He's not a waste of anything!"

"Oh, _here_ you go! Can' hear a single bad word 'bout your _precious _little prince!" Tobias's brutal temper had exploded once more and the disappointment Eileen felt was almost unbearable.

"He hasn't done or said _anything_ to you, Tobias: you're just looking for any old excuse to antagonise him. Heck, you did it when he was an innocent toddler who unconditionally loved you to the ends of the earth - why should you stop now?"

It was almost as if they'd been transported back a few weeks to the very same argument they had when it had all ended in catastrophic circumstances. Eileen didn't very much like the idea of Toby suddenly being hit with the memory of his wife Magiking him through the air and down the stairs and so quickly changed her tone…

"Eat you bacon before it gets cold," she sniffed haughtily. "If you need me-"

"'Just dance around naked blarin' incantations to a fucking voodoo doll?'" Tobias bit.

"- I'll be downstairs!" Eileen continued in indignation and stalked out of the room.

~*~


	16. Care of Dangerous Creatures

**A/N:** I keep promising the update quicker and I keep falling back on those promises, greatest apologies. However, I would greatly GREATLY appreciate some reviews as the last few chapters have been lacking somewhat in them and I'm left wondering a bit. I will continue to write of course (this story means too much to me to stop anytime soon- it's actually frightening how much I love writing this story, especially Eileen who is just amazing to explore for me), but just a few words to tell me how you find it would be appreciated like I'd appreciate a big block of my weight in ice on this 40 degree (Celsius) day *melts*... so, you know, either or is welcome ;)

A BIG thank you to my reviewers. Big big love to you all. Also to the adds and favourites. Thanks.

Now... enjoy!

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**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XVI – Care of Dangerous Creatures**

"_Oh Accalia! Did you see her big, specky face?"_

"_I know! As if she honestly believed she could make friends like __**us**__!"_

"_Miserable, ugly, mopey, moaning Myrtle!"_

"_You should make that into a song, Olive."_

"_Oh yes! Let's do it now and sing it down the dormitory halls when she comes back from snivelling all over the bathroom floor!"_

_The two sixth-year Ravenclaw girls laughed vigorously and whipped out a piece of parchment from one of the desks in the common room, before catching sight of three much younger Ravenclaws sitting upon the couches, two gaping at them with a shocked expression, one calmly reading. _

"_That's not very nice, you know, Olive." One of the girls said with a disdainful expression, the other nodded. _

"_Whatever you say, Fawcett. As if you haven't been laughing at Moaning-tle behind her back with your little third years too."_

"_I didn't say we __**liked **__her! Just that writing a song about her seems a bit much, is all-"_

"_Don't see your friends complaining, Lucy, I'd suggest you stop using the word 'we' to make yourself feel superior and supported." Olive Hornby bit back with a bemused expression and a customary Ravenclaw tongue. _

_Lucy Fawcett shot her head around to the two other girls. The brunette nodded briskly from the sudden prompt, which made Olive and Accalia snort in disapproval, the other still wasn't paying much attention. _

"_Eileen! Don't you agree?" Lucy incited once more. The raven-haired Ravenclaw third year finally looked lazily up from her back to see the four girls staring at her. She didn't like it at all. _

"_Hmm?" _

"_About Myrtle!"_

"_Oh…" Eileen replied nonchalantly, "certainly." She wasn't exactly sure what she was agreeing to, but from Lucy's expression she had answered in the correct way. Olive and Accalia appeared bored with this exchange and made their up to the dormitories. _

"_Poor Myrtle…" Lucy continued – ever the rational, kind girl despite a slightly delicate hypocritical attitude. "We should go find her, she's probably locked herself away again."_

"_Yeah, we should." Catriona piped in. To their unmistakable surprise, Eileen was the first one to get up. Her explanation was swift, however._

"_It's Friday. Gobstones meeting at six, remember?" she explained. The girl's faces fell. _

_Eileen couldn't help but smile as she travelled down the windy staircase of Ravenclaw Tower in her black robes trimmed with blue and copper; she always loved their twice weekly Gobstones meeting (while Potions was her greatest passion, Gobstones was by far the next thing in line), the game gave her a chance to interact with people who weren't Ravenclaws for a change, since the school was usually so segregated into the four Houses. Eileen certainly didn't agree that sorting people was the best tactic for school unity, but who was she to go to Headmaster Dippet and question the running of a thousand year old establishment? _

_As she bounded along the stone floors that shimmered with orange from the warm and cosy fire lamps, Eileen hardly noticed the weeping older girl coming up from the opposite end of the hallway; when she did, however, she issued a quiet groan. _

Myrtle…

"_Olive got bored of taunting me behind my back did she, Prince?" Myrtle shot viciously, "sent you and the rest of her minions to come find me I'll bet!" _

_As she stormed closer and closer, Eileen could tell that she had been crying so fervently that actual mucus was dribbling out of her nose. The younger Ravenclaw mentally shuddered, still being quite used to a very aristocratic household and a mother who would positively murder__her if Eileen ever dared to blubber so hard that she spewed out the contents of her sinuses everywhere. _

_As she came closer Eileen unashamedly narrowed her eyes at the irksome older girl. _

"_Oh, shut-up, will you?" She retorted simply, almost happy that Myrtle knew she didn't like her – despite how much her far more gracious friends would have berated her for it._

_It appeared Myrtle had nothing much else to say on the matter. She continued on her gloomy way towards the common room – now crying even more. Eileen exhaled a weighty sigh and continued down the hallway. _

"_Watch it, Ravenclaw!" _

_Eileen, momentarily distracted by the sight of her Gobstones team sitting around one of the tables in the common study room, had collided with a much taller boy in the doors entrance. _

"_Sorry," she mumbled, before looking up to see the four Slytherin males march past her and pull out chairs. Oh, Merlin… one of them was him…_

"_Tom, come sit here," one of the boys asked in an almost pleading tone, as if he could give anything to merely be seen sitting next to the Slytherin prefect. _

"_All in good time, Macnair. All in good time." Tom Riddle replied, with such a smirk playing around his lips, Eileen was almost sure that he was rather enjoying keeping his friend waiting for his approval. The corner of his mouth curled ever so slightly and a small fold appeared right next to his cerise lips – though it made his face seem all the more smooth… how was that possible…? _

_And then Eileen realised that she had been standing in the doorway for a far longer time than could be deemed appropriate. _

_Worse even than that, one of the boys had noticed her staring and had whispered something to his friend. They both looked over at her and started sniggering as she blushed furiously and headed quickly, with her head slightly down over to the Gobstones club. Tom Riddle did not even care to look at the object of his gang's amusement. _

_Eileen, who was embarrassed far enough by this stage, had all hopes of sitting down and disappearing from Riddle's view for the rest of the week – but when a booming voice echoed down the hall calling her very name, she knew that hope had been too good to be true. _

"_Leenie! There yer are! I need to speak to yer. S'quite urgent." _

_This time Tom Riddle did look up, but not in her direction – the direction of the booming voice. His eyes immediately narrowed, and it was as if a cold chill had washed over the entire study hall. _

"_I can't now Hagrid, I have a Gobstones meeting." Eileen replied quietly to her half-giant friend, who was the same age as herself. She motioned to the ten or so people huddled around the furthest desk. "Later."_

"_Leenie, please…"_

_Eileen and Hagrid's almost identical black eyes met each other; she could almost see the urgency swirling within them. She looked back to where the Gobstones captain, a seventh-year Ravenclaw by the name of Alec Thomas, was sitting and waved her apologies at him. _

"_Hagrid, this had better be important!" Eileen insisted as they walked side-by-side down the emptying corridors. "Where are we going? What do you want? Why did you wait until I was at a Gobstones meeting?"_

_Hagrid chuckled warmly. "Can see why yer a Ravenclaw, Leenie, bombard me with questions!"_

_Eileen crossed her arms irritably and stopped in her tracks. She knew that Hagrid was heading for the library and she had inkling why._

"_Hagrid, if you pulled me out of a very important meeting discussing tactics for our game against Beauxbatons just to help you write your Potions essay for Slughorn, which is due tomorrow morning, I am going to be __**very **__annoyed. You know I'm the team's best player apart from Alec."_

"_No, no, no," Hagrid assured, waving his hands. "I mean- yes, yer are! Yer brilliant! But I've done me Potions – well, most of it. It's… come 'ere… come on!"_

_The half-giant and the diminutively thin Eileen Prince who looked positively withered and gaunt next to him found a dark, shady area at the back of the library to sit. It was to Hagrid's advantage that rain was pattering hard on the windowpanes making it virtually impossible for anyone not in their immediate vicinity to hear them._

"_Got this yesterday…" Hagrid begun to explain quietly, "and, well, thought yer'd appreciate it – being the only girl I know who shares me love for the unusual and – well – dangerous."_

_He set down a tanned box upon the table and slid it toward her carefully. Eileen was truly worried now – almost less about the contents of the box and more about the way Hagrid blushed when he said that last sentence. _

"_Oh no, Hagrid…" she said in trepidation. "What is it?"_

"_Open it. S'alright – it ain't hatched yet."_

"_**Hatched**__?!" _

"_Shhh!"_

_Eileen cracked her fingers and peeled back the lid, she snapped it shut almost one second later. _

"_It's an Acromantula egg."_

"_I know, pretty ain't it?"_

"_Well, if 'pretty' is the word to use for an egg containing a killer spider with a taste for live human organs, then... yep."_

_Hagrid gave a great beaming smile, unaware of Eileen's sarcastic tone. And by Merlin, Eileen could not help but smile back. "What on earth is wrong with you, you big fool?" she asked warmly of her Gryffindor friend. _

"_Was gonna be destroyed, yer know. I just couldn't let it happen. Acromantula's need mummy's just as anyone does."_

"_What does that make me then, its daddy?"_

_Hagrid threw his head back and chuckled, it made Eileen grin. _

"_If yer want. We could be a nice 'lil family!"_

"_Seriously, Hagrid, you're going to have to set it free."_

_Hagrid's grin immediately fell. She knew that he had expected her to be as enthusiastic about the Acromantula as he was; he wasn't entirely coming out of left field with that hope either, Eileen and Hagrid had long been closely connected with one another since first year after establishing common ground in a love for the 'unusual and dangerous' as he had just put it; Hagrid for his love of untameable creatures and Eileen for her love of the mere untameable. _

"_But if we kept it here somewhere, Leenie. Somewhere no-one could find it!"_

"_I'm sure they could find something the size of an elephant in Hogwarts no matter how hard you try to hide it!"_

"_Yeah but…" Hagrid leant back in his chair which probably wasn't that good of an idea – the legs were already creaking. "… we don't have ter worry about that now do we? It's only the size on a Pekinese when it hatches n' all and it certainly won' be able to defend itself… it's only a baby after all."_

_Eileen expelled a frustrated sigh and leant forward with her hands on her chin, deep in thought. She didn't want the poor thing to be destroyed either; wanting to do away with something that you couldn't understand because it was just __**different**__… it would be against everything she stood for. _

"_Well from the looks of it it'll stay an egg for quite some time yet – I'd say about another week and a half, two weeks max – we'll have time to think of something."_

_Hagrid nodded contently. "Ah, I knew yer'd love him… her… as much as me Leenie! It'll be thankful ter us, just yer watch. I…"_

_The half-giant lowered his voice far more than he ever did when discussing the Acromantula. _

"… _I really like yer, Eileen. Yer so smart and a gifted witch, but yer never judgin'… well, I just really like yer is all." He looked away, blushing more than ever before._

_Eileen gaped at him, not quite sure what to make of this sudden declaration. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to her – certainly the only male attention she had ever received apart from that… abominable incident with Arcturus Black. She felt truly, absolutely awful, however, for wishing that a particular Slytherin boy had been the one to say it and not Rubeus Hagrid. _

"_I… thank you very much Hagrid, I like you too… but, not… I…" _

How on earth can I tell him that he's too _nice _for me – how ridiculous does that even sound?! Did he even mean it in that way? Merlin knows he's the sweetest thing on the planet; it could have been a simple compliment from a good friend. _Yes, that was probably what it was after all._

"… _I have an awful taste in boys." Eileen finally stated both simply and enigmatically. _

_If she were ever to have an official slogan – she thought she would certainly have been given that one, especially when she would look back on everything as an adult. Eileen Prince: Awful Taste in Boys._

_Hagrid smiled and shook his head. "Nah yer don't, yer just a lover of dangerous creatures. S'why I like yer so much!"_

_She had to admit Lover of Dangerous Creatures did sound for more romantic, even if the reality of going after said dangerous creatures was the most unromantic thing in the world. Before she could respond, or rather say her goodbyes and rush off to try and catch the tail-end of her Gobstones meeting, a few books that were resting on the edge of one of the bookshelves came tumbling down to the ground, Eileen and Hagrid jumped in surprise. _

"_Don' tell me Irma was there the whole time! Rotten lil' snitch she is!" Hagrid exclaimed in terror, as a dark figure rushed past them – it was impossible to decipher exactly who it was, as it was now thundering down so hard outside that virtually all light was blocked. Eileen quickly tucked her naval length black hair behind her ears and jumped up._

"_I'll see you, Hagrid, I've really got to go. Why don't you try looking for some books on the matter?" It was pretty much her standard answer to everything. Eileen waved quickly and skirted around the shelves to the entrance; at the door she spotted a glimpse of black robes just before they swiped over the frame and disappeared from sight. Eileen marched quickly after them – narrowly avoiding the young vulture-like apprentice librarian, Irma Pince's, gaze. _

_When she stepped out into the corridor, it was growing ever more crowded with students making their way back to their various common rooms. Eileen spotted Alec Thomas headed towards her and waved him down. _

"_What happened to you, Eileen? I could have used a fellow Ravenclaw to keep all the other members attention spans in check!" he demanded as he strutted his way up to her and shoved a piece of parchment covered in diagrams and lists into her hand. "Here, that's the order for the match this weekend. I'm putting you second last after me, Merlin knows we need a strong player to finish Beauxbatons off."_

"_Oh, thank you, Alec. And I'm really sorry about earlier…" Eileen suddenly trailed off when she spotted a distant figure leaning against the stone barrier at the end of the corridor._

_Alec was babbling about something or other and Eileen could only pick up a few words here and there (words like "important", "match", "never", "again", "team", "Eileen", "back", "common room") – but the distant figure had looked around and actually caught her eye. _

He's actually caught my eye!

_But Tom Riddle didn't look at all too happy to have done so. Eileen pretended to nod along to Alec's lectures while flicking her dark eyes back and forth from Tom. It was as if he were physically studying her, but it wasn't her body… as if any boy would find her gaunt stick of a body arousing in the slightest! It was her face. It made her feel so fantastically uncomfortable and excited… Eileen hated the way he was making her feel. Why was uneasiness so alluring? And __**why **__did he keep staring at her? Not that she was complaining… no: she __**was**__ complaining._

_It was around midnight when Eileen, curled up in a tight ball within her royal blue bed, finally managed to purge her thoughts of Tom; and that was only really thanks to her mother's gift in Occlumency – she recalled how Serafina used to sit on her daughters bed and settle Eileen into a peaceful and soothing sleep after she had woken with nightmares when she was younger._

"_Focus on your breathing, child…" Serafina used to tell her in a deep murmur. "Empty the mind so that there is nothing. If there is nothing in the mind to dwell on then there is nothing that can scare you." _

_And while Eileen herself had never been all that wonderful at Occlumency (her mind was far too inquisitive to ever settle itself down), her mothers voice remained with her. Had she shown the horrors that would await her in her near future, Eileen would have felt utterly ridiculous for using Occlumency techniques to forget about a mere boy… or at least she would if Tom were any other mere boy. Eileen closed her eyes and dreamed pleasantly in the shelter of her mind, beyond all reckoning that the charming boy she currently harboured a juvenile desire for would, in due course, be the one that would cast an interminable plague over her own flesh and blood. _

_~*~  
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	17. An Invitation of Sorts

_A/N: I haven't forgotten this story! Apologies for not being around and reviewing and updating and such... nursing school is a cruel Mistress, and I've just been accepted for practicum in the intensive care unit which is pretty much my dream come true - alas the preparation for which is taking up a lot of my time! But we're here now, I'm still very much dedicated in writing this... so for what it's worth, I hope you enjoy :)_

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**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XVII**** – An Invitation of Sorts**

Eileen stormed down the stairs, infuriated with her good-for-nothing husband, and marched straight into the kitchen where she did not notice her son staring perplexedly at the note in front of him.

"I'm getting a job." Eileen muttered vehemently in her fury. If Tobias could waltz around calling the cotton mill his _"sanctuary away from this fuckin' prison of a buildin'"_, so could she.

"Hmmm?"

Eileen picked up his plate without looking at him and shoved it into the sink with such heated energy that a long crack materialized right down the centre of it.

"_Blast_!" Eileen managed to impede the urge to hurl the plate across the room just in time. Merlin, that brought back some memories… a long lost time when she still had some fight left in her and used to have one urge after the other to fling various pieces of dining utensils at Tobias's head when they used to argue. Indeed, she had done on more than one occasion; another reason why the Snape's lacked so many teacups and saucers. That all seemed like a thousand years ago, now… Eileen had stopped all physical retaliation after storming out of the kitchen one night to find her eight-year-old boy crying on the staircase.

"We only have three of those left, Mother."

Eileen turned around to find Severus glaring at her, parchment still in hand. Her mood immediately vanished.

"That we do," she pretended to busy herself scrubbing the two plates in the sink. "So… you received something from a school friend, I see?"

"No. It's…" but no further response came from him. Eileen quickly glanced over her shoulder to see Severus had returned to frowning at it. She knew her son like the back of her hand and knew that he would certainly not appreciate any sort of prying into any of his affairs, however small, but in the minutes that went by Eileen grew more and more curious that she simply could not contain herself any longer.

"Who's it from then?"

There was another long pause. Eileen stacked the dishes into the door-less cupboard.

"… it's… from Grandmother."

Eileen gave a burst of laughter.

"Alright if you don't want to tell me, you don't want to tell me." She chuckled to herself. Best leave him.

"I _am_ telling you."

"Very well," Eileen smiled and leaned across the table to face him– so utterly pleased to finally have him want to open up to her about these issues, not that she could call herself a Master at them by any means. "Do tell me. Is she pretty?"

Severus blinked at her for a few seconds before his expression morphed into something of utter disgust. "… _what?"_

"Is she pretty? … It _is _a girl, isn't it?" Eileen added quickly. He may have been opening up to her far more than she expected.

"No, it is_ not _a _girl_!I just - !"

"… a boy?"

"No! What on… I keep…" but Severus seemed to be able to tell from Eileen's seriously compassionate looking expression what she was hinting at. "… I like _girls_, mother!"

"Oh, sorry, I was just…"

"I keep _telling_ you," Severus spat, now extremely angry. "It's from _Grandmother. _That is not a _joke._ You can read it yourself; it says not to show you but I can't seriously believe that she assumed I wouldn't."

But Eileen didn't even look at it. He must have charmed it to read something else, of that she was sure.

"I must have 'idiot' written on my forehead today. As if _Grandma _would ever send you an _owl."_

"_Ugh. _Not Grandma!" Severus said in impatient annoyance once it dawned on him just why his mother had been so quick to discard the truth as a badly failed joke "… _Grandmother." _

The thought that he could have meant another relation had not even crossed her mind. She had blocked the other one out so well that she was almost completely ignorant of her existence nowadays. In fact, Eileen was so ignorant of her existence that it was still taking time to compute.

"Grandmother?"

"_Yes," _he spat. "Grandmother."

"Wha…"

Eileen hastily picked up the letter. She waited before beginning to read it, to see if Severus would object, but he sat as still as ever. In fact, he continued to sit still until Eileen had read the very last line. She was speechless for a good few minutes, she simply did not know what to say, what to do…

Eventually, she folded the parchment up and raised her head indignantly.

"She's lying."

"Why would she do such a thing?"

"I'll tell you why: because nothing your _dear grandmother _ever does is simple or straightforward. There is something behind everything with her, and then some. She wants to see you, and this is her way of garnering sympathy; believe me -" Eileen spat the words with pure venom, " – my emotionally empty shell of a mother is _never _this demonstrative." She waved the parchment in front of Severus's face before dropping it on the table.

Eileen was so irate at her mother that she was beside herself. How _dare _she write to her son when she had never before met him in her life and just assume that he would come running to her beck and call! All under the absurd pretence that she was…

"She said she was dying, mother."

Eileen gave a short bitter laugh. "She is not_ dying_, darling. She plays all kinds of trick cards when she needs something… she was a Slyth-"

She trailed off in mid-sentence, instantly feeling a pang of remorse for the angry words that were spewing from her thin lips. Severus raised a dark eyebrow at her.

"… erin?" he took the liberty of finishing.

"I didn't mean that, Severus. I'm sorry."

"No mother, I agree - clearly she must be a fraudulent trickster by default, as all of those nasty, evil little Slytherin's are."

"I didn't mean all Slytherin's were like that and you know it, Sev." Eileen grimaced. She felt it would be futile to tell him that she had been brought up by Slytherin's, surrounded by Slytherin's throughout her childhood and had fallen in love with a Slytherin; and that her son was, in all actuality, the only Slytherin she knew who had not caused pain to her in one way or another. "But this _particular _Slytherin is a particularly good actress."

"Or she could simply want to converse with me before she passes away because she knows her daughter won't believe that she is dying until she is dead? Or is that entirely out of the question for someone who was a Slytherin Head Girl?"

"I know my mother far better than you do, if you had the chance to actually meet her…"

Eileen stopped for a moment, wondering herself why she was fighting this so much. It couldn't have been because Serafina had found it prudent to go behind her back and drag her own grandson into this near life-long feud between them… it had to be something else…

_But if he had the chance to actually meet her…_

Ever since Severus was born Eileen had always thought it would mean the end of him if he ever met his Dark magic sorceress of a grandmother. Most of her still believed the very same thing. Ever since she had been in contact with her, Serafina was constantly looking for more and more ways to gain as much power and influence as possible in the wizarding world – it was not a trait Eileen used to envy quite as much as she envied her mother's striking beauty, or her grace, or the way in which she commanded immediate respect from whoever she wished, whenever she wished.

And yet now… a small part of her was beginning to think it may be good for Severus to actually meet the woman – to see that Serafina Prince, while still graceful and beautiful and powerful, was also a manipulative, Galleon-digging harlot who used to rope filthy rich (and just plain filthy) wizards into her web and leave them to dust when they had nothing more to give. Perhaps then he would realise that the grass certainly was not greener on the other side… Eileen felt another pang of guilt and knew that she couldn't do that to him; she couldn't leave him feeling that life was as hopeless and bleak as _she_ felt it was.

Then again: Serafina really _could _be dying and, seeing that the Prince's had cut their daughter off from her sizeable inheritance and seeing that Atticus Prince now had all the power and authority of a particularly dilapidated sponge, simply wanted to hand down the family fortune and the deed to Prince Manor to their half-blood grandson with the Muggle surname. Eileen almost scoffed at herself… what a likely possibility _that _was.

Severus was gazing at the window, cracking his fingers uneasily and wearing an expression of deep upheaval.

"Sev, it's your decision… do what _you _want to do," Eileen handed him back the parchment and settled herself down on the couch with a rather monstrous looking leather-bound book; she had made the decision not to speak to Tobias for the rest of the day. After a few chapters, she would head out and search for job vacancies and be damned what anyone thought of it.

After a few moments of hushed stillness, Eileen heard the protracted and purposeful tear of parchment and the beat of a bin lid and she was filled with warmth. He walked past her without further discussion.

"Where are you going, boy?" came a harsher voice from the doorway. So Tobias really was determined to get to work again… if only the money actually managed to stay in their bank account.

There was a painfully long silence, and then: "_well_? Yer deaf?"

Eileen's anger at her husband had almost now boiled over. Soon she felt that there would soon be another teacup ready for its journey towards her husband's head if he didn't shut-up soon. She glanced up from her book to see father and son eyeing each other up, as if they were about to commence a fistfight in the hallway – it would certainly make a fairer fight now that Severus had now grown slightly taller than Tobias.

"For a walk."

It didn't sound like his usual scathing self; he sounded whitewashed, defeated… he pushed his way past Toby who, for a change, stepped aside and let him go. Tobias came into the room with the same haughty expression on his face. "What you reading there?"

"_Methods and Principles in Medicinal __Chemistry."_

_"… __Why?"_

___She knew he would continue to attempt to rile her up, as he always did whenever she picked up a book. But as long as it dealt with a Muggle topic, at least he wouldn't blow a fuse… thankfully Eileen was still very much fascinated by Muggle subjects._

Suddenly, she felt the warm heavy touch of two strong arms around her. Eileen looked upward towards the ceiling, and saw her husband above her. "What are you doing?"

"Makin' up for what I said," Toby replied almost inaudibly, he kissed the nape of her neck and she flinched. She knew he didn't really mean that; she knew what he really wanted.

"Just stop it…_"_

"Don't you play your hard to get games again, Ei, yer already did that last night before you ended up begging for it like you always do."

Eileen wished beyond all wishes that she could have called him a dirty liar for even daring to assume that she was so physically needy for his advances; but, crass and tactless as that statement was outside of the bedroom, it was not a lie… and Eileen hated him for it from the bottom of her heart; she hated him for knowing how much she wanted him. She hated herself.

"Piss off, Toby."

By the time his hand had swept its way underneath her top and her heart began beating furiously against his palm, Eileen forced herself to break away. She stormed to the other side of the room and fell upon another chair dramatically, whereupon she simply turned the page of the book and resumed reading. Toby remained with one leg on the other chair glaring in her direction, as if he were a lion surveying the weakest runt in the herd. He looked positively dishevelled with either fury or passion, Eileen was not sure – but it was a maddeningly alluring sight. She had forgotten how attractive he was when he was not jumped up to his eyeballs in both lawful and illicit drugs.

"Best idea you've ever had," Toby finally snapped, as he always did. He heatedly snatched his coat from the table.

"Where are you going? You aren't well, Toby…"

Eileen was so emotionally weary now that she didn't feel she would ever be able to stand up again.

"Trust me, Ei, the sight of that face of yours every mornin' makes me sicker than anything out there could make me in a hundred years."

The hopeless way in which her husband said it, the quiet and despondent way instead of the usual shouting match, stung her like a thousand venomous needles in her belly. There was nothing more to say, or to do. Eileen looked away from him and shut her eyes to spite the tears that undoubtedly came.

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The gloomy, overcast day did nothing to aide the ancient, rusty old swings that moved almost fluidly in the wind. Many years ago those same swings used to be painted red, vibrant red.... now the faded paint had all but flaked off; it was as if the entire playground had been saturated in grey.

Severus grimaced from where he sat on his small hill, overlooking it. A vision of much happier times crossed his mind; he could almost see her sitting opposite him, swinging and talking and laughing all at once and instantly brightening up any sort of horrid day he had had at home. Perhaps the vibrancy came not from the condition of the playground after all, but from the person he used to share it with… Lily Evans had not came back to their usual meeting spot ever since fifth-year. She could have moved to the other side of the country as far as Severus knew, he had not seen her outside of Hogwarts since. The mere passing thought that there was a possibility the girl he was still incessantly in love with could very well be living with that bullying dolt James Potter made his hair stand on end. No one the least bit like him deserved someone like Lily.

When the tall, shadowy figure of his father made its appearance just across from the park – storming down the hill in the painfully obvious direction of their local pub – Severus took one long breath and waited patiently for Tobias's greasy brown hair to disappear around the corner and any other Muggle in the surrounding vicinity to make themselves scarce. He took out a piece of ripped parchment from his pocket: a piece of parchment that he had torn before dropping the other half in his bin.

Focusing on the writing upon the parchment, it wasn't long until, with a loud crack, he had apparated away.


	18. The Lord and the Prince

_A/N: Nothing much to say. This is really short, but I'm finding it helps with writing chapters faster and more efficiently - so I'll be trying to shorten everything from here on in. It's not my most favourite or exciting of chapters that I've written for this story, but it does its job :P_

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**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XVIII**** –The Lord and the Prince.**

_Eileen had never been so happy in her life. _

_It seemed that Hagrid bringing that Acromantula egg into the castle had been a blessing in disguise; for soon after, the boy that she had now admitted to herself that she had hopelessly fallen for, had actually talked to her the morning after her meeting with Hagrid; he literally walked right up to the Ravenclaw table and had a discussion with her!_

"_Prince, is it?" he had asked._

_Lucy Fawcett choked on her pumpkin juice at the sight of Tom standing over the three third year friends. Eileen, who was sitting opposite Lucy and had her back to the speaker, gaped at her friend wide-eyed before turning slowly to face him._

"…_. Y-yes?"_

_Tom smiled charmingly. "Mind if we have a little talk?"_

_When Tom had taken her to a secluded corridor and informed her that he had overheard everything about Hagrid and the creature, Eileen's mood took a turn for the worst. _That's it, _she had thought_, I'm expelled and I'll be homeless and I'll starve and I'll die_**. **__The mind of a thirteen-year-old was no place for rational thought. _

_But then Tom had explained that he was not going to turn them both in. _

"_I'm as interested in these things as you," he explained with understanding. "I just… want to make sure that Rubeus isn't putting one of my favourite Ravenclaws in danger by making her care for a poor but dangerous creature. What was it, again…?"_

Favourite Ravenclaw!_ Well that was a little forward, considering he had only just become aware of her existence, but Eileen was not going to complain when served with such a compliment – they were always so rare._

"_It's…" Eileen could see no point in lying, Tom already knew it was dangerous, "…it's an Acromantula… oh, but Hagrid would never deliberately put anyone in danger!" Eileen told the dreadfully handsome boy reassuringly. "He just has a love for the precarious. As, you could say, I do."_

_Tom's eyes glittered inquisitively. Little did Eileen know just why they glittered. _

"_He does, does he? He is often getting in trouble for bringing things into the castle isn't he…?". Eileen frowned, Tom seemed rather _too _happy._

"_Well, yes. But he also wouldn't hurt a fly - I promise." She said fearfully. _

_Tom chuckled and folded his arms. "Well then, as long as he isn't hurting flies then I think your secret is safe with me… like I said, I am merely asking out of interest. I know how it is to have everyone hate you, like everyone does the poor Acromantula's."_

"_Huh? No one hates you. You're… you're really popular." Eileen blushed girlishly, and it was annoyingly doubly obvious on her extra pale skin. _

_A brilliant smile radiated from the Slytherin's beautiful face. Wondrous as it was, Eileen couldn't help but feel a warm pang of disenchantment in the pit of her stomach… as he could ever think of her: a sickly, scrawny, puny, unsightly looking third year girl, as she thought of him. _

"_Hogwarts has been kind to me," Tom explained as they walked back to the Great Hall together, Eileen felt obnoxiously superior to all the girls who stared at them as they walked on by; she even slowed her steps so it would last longer. Eileen usually could not stand arrogance in any form, but she couldn't deny that this made her feel good. "The Muggle orphanage isn't nearly as kind, Miss Prince, especially to a wizard."_

"_Oh, Tom, I'm so sorry."_

_He was an orphan. An abused orphan, by the sounds of it. Compassion flowed through her like running water. Eileen's mother always said that it was a weakness on her part, but Eileen didn't agree. _

"_Don't be," Tom said, waving her condolences away. "I am just saying that I know what it is like to be outcaste. Which is why I have a deep interest in the creatures that you also have a fondness for, and in turn which is why I see it as a great disservice to the thing if I turn it in: to be executed, no doubt. As long as it never harms anyone…"_

"_It won't. Hagrid and I will make sure of it. You… you won't tell anyone about it though?" Eileen asked as they came to a halt in the hallway of the Great Hall, her voice was lowered. _

"_And have Dippet or Dumbledore destroy such a rare and interesting specimen?" Tom replied in an equally low manner. He leant forward towards her and for one insane second Eileen thought he was about to kiss her - but he merely whispered, "as long as your friend makes sure it does no one any harm, you have my word… thank you for the talk - Eileen." _

_He had her around his little finger, and he knew it. In fact, she was so rapturous as she waved her goodbye to him and ran back to her friends (where she was instantly interrogated), that she did not notice the way Tom smirked nastily as he looked back at her from the Slytherin table, nor did she notice his friends sniggering… nor did she notice Hagrid watching all of this from the Gryffindor table with a perplexed expression. _

_Eileen turned over in her bed that night, thinking about the day's occurrences and smiled contentedly. Of course, she had by now made up all sorts of stories in her head about her and Tom, as teenage girls often do, though she wasn't quite as moronic as those giggly ones who scratched initials into the classroom desks with their un-inked quills (Eileen had certainly seen a few T.R's surrounded by love hearts during her time at Hogwarts). She still had a steady head… she knew deep down they were but fantasies. _

_Still, he had talked to her_ - _which was more than the other prettier girls in her year could say. That made her feel good. So good that she was able to effortlessly dissolve into her fantasies and emerge from them five minutes later, feeling satisfied. Miss Prince slept well. _

_~*~_

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Serafina paced the marble floors of her grand library. She had done an awful lot of pacing aimlessly today.

Her 'episode' after her meeting with the Dark Lord had certainly taken its toll, but she had finally triumphed over her injuries and ailments… it was a shame, really, that Serafina was reduced to remaining in the confines of her home since she had followed the Dark Lord's order to take leave from her influential position in the Wizengamot and return only when he commanded – where she awaited any sort of news to no advantage.

Until now, that was.

"Mistress Sera! Mistress Sera!"

Missy had pushed the library doors open with a superhuman force.

"Calm down!" Serafina demanded of the panting House Elf. "_What?_"

She hoped the next words out of Missy's mouth were news of her husband's perceptible lack of breathing.

"There is a young man- a young man coming down the path-"

Missy's Mistress' cavernous black eyes widened.

"What?"

"Missy was keeping watch as ordered, Mistress… he fits the description indeed!"

Serafina had never run so fast in her life. Her emerald cloak looked almost a blur as she set off at a panicked sprint out of the library, across the landing and towards one of the many rooms overlooking the front of the manor; she almost crashed against the window but steadied herself upon the frame.

Taking one quick look at the figure standing outside - who was gazing around at the grounds with an overwhelming look of disbelief – Serafina took of at another hasty run towards her chambers, Missy following at her heels. The elder women yanked off her heavy billowing cloak and tossed it to the floor.

"Get my bed robes," she snapped at the House Elf, who did as she was bid. When Missy returned from the enormous walk-in wardrobe, Serafina's hair had been transformed from its usual elegant taut bun to a messy maze of ebony tresses, which she tied back in a quick, uncivilised ponytail.

"Let him in," Serafina commanded, accidentally taking a glance of herself in the mirror and grimacing with disgust at how she looked. It had to be done this way if she had any hope at all of gaining his trust. "Make _sure _he stays in the entrance hall until I arrive to greet him."

Missy rushed away while Serafina whipped out her wand to complete the finishing touches to her look. Before her very eyes the simple aging spell had created dark rings around her eyes, wrinkles around her usually porcelain forehead and mouth… cracked thin lips where they used to be rose red and full… it was almost too painful to endure. Worst of all was the greying of her raven hair, something that had been, and would be, inherited amoungst her family members for generations.

_At least it's reversible… _was her last thought before drawing in a deep breath, and making sure that her Occlumency shields were adequately in place. She knew she would have to do the best acting job of her life with this clever one…

"Hello, Severus."

Serafina found her grandson standing right where she had ordered Missy to take him; he took his eyes off the magnificent chandelier in the centre of the grand staircase and fixed them upon her - she was pleased when she saw a slight flash of alarm in them.

"You received my letter." Serafina prompted as she staggered down the stairs on one of Attcius' walking sticks, in the perfect impression of a woman on deaths door.

"Yes."

"And Eileen… I mean... your mother…. does she know you are here?"

"I don't care."

"Is she well?"

"She is never well."

_So something must have happened. Not a bad thing… it was obviously the push that brought him here. _

"I merely came to enquire about your health, I won't take up any more of your time than is necessary," Severus continued as he glanced around at his opulent surroundings. "You clearly have much more extravagant ways of keeping yourselves amused than my company."

"Don't be ridiculous," Serafina retorted in a cracked and weary voice, "I have waited many years for you to arrive at Prince Manor. It is only a shame that it is my physical demise that brought you here, but I am grateful to see my grandson whatever the reason." She gestured to the sitting room. "Shall we sit?"

"I told you, I won't be staying-"

"Surely you didn't come all the way to Essex from Derby for a five second spiel about how you won't be staying?"

She tried to say it as kindly and as sickly as she could without sounding completely false - after all, Severus had met her when she was her genuine, sharp self… it was a delicate operation indeed.

"No," Severus snapped. "But I didn't come here for a good old tête-à-tête over a pot of tea and biscuits either. I'm from a working class household, you see, we all eat and socialise like rabid dogs."

Serafina smiled amiably, she was growing rather fond of his prickly wit… almost worthy of a Prince indeed, were it not for the Muggle references he used.

"Ah well, I can promise that there will be none of that here… suffice to say your wizarding family is not really the _type _for heartfelt natters and biscuits. Shall we?" She gestured once more. "I have much to discuss with you."

This time, he complied. And the journey had finally begun.

~*~


	19. Bad Love

A/N: I'm in the beginning stages of preparing a new fic that deals with the Hogwarts-era that succeeds this Marauder-era fic. So please look out for it :) Nothing else to update. I hope you enjoy chapter nineteen and I'm sorry I'm so slack with pushing chapters out... life is incredibly busy and frustrating at the moment.

* * *

**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XIX**** – Bad Love**

**Warning: Coarse language  
**

Tobias had stumbled back home just before midnight. How he even managed to both remember where he lived and get the key through the lock was beyond Eileen.

"Starting work tomorrow then?" was the first question he was subjected to as he entered the kitchen to find his wife sitting calmly on a chair, sipping at a cup of coffee.

"Eh?"

"Well, if you're well enough to go out and spend what little money we have on the piss," Eileen spat, "you're well enough to put a loaf of bread on the table for once, aren't you Toby? Aren't you, _dearest_?"

"Ah, fer fucks sake w-woman, go ter bed and shuddup for once." His words were jumbled and slurred as usual.

The coffee cup clanged hard upon the table.

"I would have _tried_ that, were it not for the fact that both you and Sev saw fit to just leave the house all day with not a word of explanation!"

Toby looked as if he could only just comprehend the sentence that Eileen had strung together. He slumped onto the couch and struggled with his shoelaces.

"_Tobias Snape_!"

"Ah for Christ...! _WHATDERYOUWANT_?" he stumbled.

"Did you hear what I said? Did you even _comprehend _what I said, or do I need to start grunting like those baboons you call friends?"

Eileen was less careful with what she said when he was completely sauced; she knew he would not remember a word of her insults come morning and even if he did, and retaliated, Severus was not here to witness it. It was doubly obvious that she needn't worry about retaliation in this situation, for as soon as the words left Eileen's mouth Tobias's head was lolling to one side. She ran and grabbed a flat cushion from one of the opposing chairs and was about to hurl it at his face, before she noticed something rather odd.

He didn't usually have sweat pouring from his face like that.

"Toby? Toby, you stupid thing! Wake up." Eileen managed to shake him forcefully enough so that he opened his bloodshot eyes… his very bloodshot eyes. She titled his head up towards the ceiling light, wishing that she had her wand to _Lumos_ them for a clearer view. His pupils were dilated to the size of dinner plates.

"Oh… brilliant." Was all she could muster.

It was the next morning when Tobias awoke groggily to find Eileen sitting next to him on their bed, coolly turning the pages of one of her books. When she noticed him stirring and moaning and holding his head, she asked coldly: "good night, was it?"

He didn't answer. She knew he was coming down and she loved how he must be hurting from it.

"Well I certainly had a good night," Eileen continued, flipping over a page. "Firstly I cleaned all of your vomit up from the carpet, which could have been the consequence of any selection of substance you ingested last night. Secondly, I found out that my husband is not quite the _recovering_ drug addict I thought he was; and thirdly, I assume that we now owe some tattooed baron even more money that could have gone towards alleviating our starvation... it's almost just like old times, Tobias - only I'm not pregnant this time."

Ah, and what fond memories they were.

Tobias rubbed his face furiously and groaned as he pushed himself up from the pillows. "You quite done bein' a nagging bitch are you?"

"Where did you get it?"

"Get what?"

"You know what."

"No I don't."

"Christ. I've met three year olds that were more mature."

"I had a few drinks at the local and watched the footy with the lads, alright! Not against the law is it, Ei? Or does your voodoo religion frown on such things?" Tobias was in far too painful a state to advance on her; she felt strangely empowered by the fact.

"And then? You can't have been in the pub for twelve hours, Toby, that's a record even by you."

"And then I went to Parker's place to escape my insane wife, a'right?"

Eileen rolled her head back against the headboard and stared at the ceiling despondently; she knew Mr. Parker well – one of Toby's less than reputable friends, and that was saying something. "And by escaping, you mean…"

"Yeah. I do mean that. Done now? Now yer can go back to my son and have a jolly little chat about what a failure and loser his father is."

"If he _were_ here I think he would be perceptive enough to see that for himself," Eileen snapped – her dark eyes narrowing. "He always _was_ a rather observant child; always watching what his heroic father did, hanging on his word… it's a tragic shame that he didn't just morph into an exact replica of you, isn't it?"

Tobias looked at her for the first time. "The little shit ran away again," he said in more of a statement than a question.

She shrugged. Much as she loved her son, Eileen was the first to admit that she was not the most maternal of mothers. She had enough trust in Severus that he could look after himself. He was quite experienced in that department; as most of the time she had been too far in the abyss of manic depression to be able do anything of use for him as a proper mother should have done.

Tobias slowly sat up upon the edge of the bed with a wince, where he sipped the glass of water that his wife had set down for him. "With that girl down the road, probably."

"You don't _owe_ anyone anything, do you?" she continued, knowing he was trying to avoid answering any questions. "We're not going to have people banging on the door like last time, are we?" Toby shook his head.

"It's nothing like last time, Ei," he reassured. "I just needed that one hit s'all…"

Toby always needed just the one.

"It better be all. I put up with it once; I _swear_ to you if you even _think _of touching that stuff again I will take a vow of celibacy for the rest of my natural life."

She knew that threat would work more than any other. Tobias finished his drink and placed it loudly down on the table. He stretched out and gave his wife a rough kiss on the cheek which made her draw back, though that bothersome insecure part of her wanted him to kiss her again.

"Well no-one wants that to happen, Ei."

And with that – the hourly argument was over. Ended as always did: with Eileen being too weak to withstand the constant fire that surrounded her husband, whose empty promises she forced herself to believe. They were the human equivalent of a yo-yo.

"Go to the mill and ask them about coming back this week, will you?" she asked.

"I was gunna do that," Toby replied defensively, though Eileen knew he wasn't.

"… I'm going to look for a job-"

"I'm going to get a bit of rest before I head down to work," Toby said almost simultaneously as Eileen and therefore her declaration went unheard and washed out. Eileen sat up in bed long after he had turned over and gone back to sleep, wondering many things… wondering where she would start to look for a job, wondering if Severus would eventually find the common decency to inform her of his whereabouts… wondering why she had let Toby get away with what he had just did…

If Mr. Parker ever dared to show his face in Mrs. Snape's house, she would make damn sure it would be an experience he wouldn't soon forget.

~*~


	20. A Marked Woman

**The Pureblood Prince Chapter XX** – **A Marked Woman  
**

_It was a wonder the Deputy Headmaster hadn't noticed the pounding of the fourteen year-old's heart as she stood outside his office that day. The throbbing was deafening to her – it thumped through her chest and her brain – the rain that hammered down outside went fully unnoticed. _

"_Wait here," Professor Llewellyn, the Ravenclaw Head of House, had told her as she shut the door harshly in her face. _

_After what seemed like an eon, the door creaked open to reveal the very weary looking man she had been waiting for. _

"_I'm sure you are well acquainted with my student, Miss Prince," Professor Llewellyn said matter-of-factly. "She demanded to talk to the Headmaster, but obviously, during these times…"_

_Professor Dumbledore took one curious look at his young students frazzled face and turned to Professor Llewellyn._

"_Indeed, __Bryony. Though it has been a week since our last Transfiguration class together, so I thank you for jogging my memory." Dumbledore said with a tired smile. "Come in, Miss Prince. Thank you, Professor."_

_The Ravenclaw Head of House and Defence Against the Dark Arts witch bowed her goodbyes to the Deputy Head. "Very quickly, Prince," she warned before taking her leave._

_Professor Dumbledore motioned for the frantic Eileen to follow him into his office._

"_Professor-!"_

"_Miss Prince," Dumbledore said calmly, raising a hand as he sat at his desk. "You need not explain everything again – Professor Llewellyn has told me much of what you were about to say. Please sit. Lemon sherbet?"_

"_No, thank you," Eileen replied in a frustrated manner. How could he be so casual at a time like this? "… Sir, please…"_

"_There is nothing that can be done about it, Eileen."_

"_But it wasn't Hagrid, Sir! It… it couldn't have been Hagrid. You must believe me!"_

"_Like I have said," Dumbledore interrupted; his calm demeanour was far more effective in getting Eileen to shut-up then it would have been if he had shouted at her. "I have been informed of your take on things by your Head of House. Unfortunately Headmaster Dippet has weighed the evidence against Rubeus… I am afraid to say the word of a fourth year with no legitimate indication for the authorities to think otherwise-"_

"_The only evidence was that Hagrid was in possession of an Acromantula - how does that…"_

_Dumbledore's blue eyes pierced through her soul from his position at the desk. Eileen suddenly felt ridiculous for even being here. "I think you'll find that it more than explains the poor girls death, Miss Prince. At least to the Ministry. Acromantula's are dangerous beasts…"_

_Eileen lowered her head. She did know what to do, or what to say anymore. For all she knew Aragog could very well have committed the crime, and in most probability, he had done… but here she was, the person who had helped Hagrid raise Aragog, who taken care of the creature, who had felt sorry for the creature, and the guilt was overwhelming… she knew she had to fight for her friend, lest she be consumed by it. _

"_Can I speak to the Headmaster, at least?" she choked. _

"_I'm afraid that will do you no good, Miss Prince. While I admire your loyalty, I propose you to try and put this terrible ordeal behind you. I'd advise you to simply be there for Rubeus. They would have broken his wand by now." The way Dumbledore looked at her with such expectation made her feel even more hopeless. _

"_Has he left already?"_

"_He is still within these walls, I believe. He is to be taken back to Kings Cross tomorrow when the Hogwarts Express collects him. If you wanted to say goodbye, I suggest now to be a most suitable time." _

_She knew that that was her cue to leave –Professor Dumbledore must have had a billion other more important things to do, especially only days after Myrtle had been killed by Slytherins monster, than listen to a guilt-ridden, emotional teenage girl – but Eileen could not contain her frustration at how Hagrid was being treated._

"_But even if Ara – the Acromantula - _had… _you know… that wasn't Hagrid's fault! He _trusts_ too much; that's all he's guilty of." _

_Dumbledore actually appeared to stop and consider this, or Eileen could have just been a tad too hopeful. Either way he nodded and made to stand up from his desk. _

"_That is something that is still in discussion between Headmaster Dippet and myself. Now, if there is nothing more, Miss Prince, I unfortunately must take my leave from you. I should have been at the staff meeting several minutes ago."_

_Eileen walked the crowded corridors of Hogwarts, full of cheery students celebrating the end of the short period of terror, as if there was a dark storm cloud threateningly looming above her. Her dark mood was made all the more worse by the realisation that she had not once stopped to think about Myrtle; she did not care at all of the girls fate. She merely cared that Hagrid was the one to be expelled for being an accessory to her murder and she was the one who got off scot-free. It made her feel like the most terrible person alive, but she had hated Myrtle and Myrtle knew it; she would have been a lying hypocrite if she had said otherwise._

_Eileen sighed and made a promise to herself to not let this whole ordeal ruin her studies – which were of top priority to her, even over her friends and certainly over her family; when they had gone and left her, her brains would be the only thing in life she could rely on. But just as that resolve manifested itself, Eileen thought of the one particular person who had managed to find a loophole in it._

_

* * *

~__*~_

_She finally found him walking out of the dungeons, surrounded by a larger-than-normal group of boys, girls… even Professor Slughorn was walking by his side, intermittently shaking his hand and patting him on the back, as he smiled and nodded in everyone's praise. Eileen watched him from a distance for a while, and begrudgingly marvelled in him._

_Apart from the recent mishaps in the castle, the past few months had been some of the best of Eileen's life. It had been the first opportunity she ever had to observe jealous girls glaring in her direction as she strolled the corridors with the most popular boy at school at her side. And now he was a hero. Even if it had led to Hagrid's expulsion, there was no denying Tom Riddle's bravery in confronting both the half-giant and the beast that night. As Tom began to break off the crowd and started heading in the direction of the prefect's study hall, Eileen seized her opportunity. Hagrid and the monster and certainly Myrtle had all but been forgotten. _

"_Tom!"_

_She tapped him playfully on the back and as he turned around she gave him a vivacious smile. _

"_I've missed you, Tom."_

_But there was no response at all from him, no charming smile or a witty response, no invitation to walk and talk with him; there was almost no recollection of who she was at all. Tom simply stared vacantly above her eye line for a few seconds before turning his back on her and continuing on his way._

"_Tom!" _

_Again, no response. Eileen followed him down the corridor. _

"_Tom…? What's the matter? You can tell me. You can tell me anything."_

_Part of her felt like declaring: _"you can trust me, Tom, unlike all the others!" _and it made her wonder just what sort of person she had turned into lately. She did not like how seductively dangerous she felt when handed a shred of power… _

_It seemed that Tom's apparent vacant stare over her was not so vacant after all… it was a cue. Without warning, Eileen felt an irritating sharp tap on her shoulder blade, she spun around reluctantly to see a boy she recognised as one of Tom's gang standing barely a foot from her. She stepped backward and hit the stone wall behind her harshly. _

"_What?" Eileen demanded, feeling extremely angry that he had interrupted her alone time with Tom. _

"_Miss Prince, I believe?" His tone was machine-like, lacking any sort of expression from which to gauge his intentions. _

"… _yes. Goodbye." Eileen snapped rudely, and made to continue after her Tom before the boy grabbed her by the arm with a pincer grip. _

"_Get your hands off me!" She shrieked. The boy immediately released as soon as a long, ebony wand tip cut into the side of his Adams apple. _

"_Shh, shh, shh, shh." He threw up his hands. "I didn't mean to frighten you, girl. Just… calm down. That's it."_

_He spoke as if he were a wild wanderer attempting to pacify a maternally outraged Hippogriff. Eileen gaped at him with a dreadfully unamused raised eyebrow. _

"_Rawr!" she burst sardonically, her charcoal eyes wide with dramatic mockery. It appeared her sense of humour was lost on the boy, however; he simply blinked at her with apparent confusion four or five times before he continued. _

"_Uh. Well, yes. Fair enough. Listen, I was wondering if maybe you would care to stroll with me by the lake, Miss Prince?" He swallowed nervously as his eyes moved downwards towards where the wand was still prodding. "I'd, er, I'd very much like to… get to know you more. I am a Pureblood as well, you see."_

_Eileen almost laughed in his face; indeed, she could not help but let a contemptuous snort escape her lips. "Are you indeed? I'm sorry to disappoint but I'm not one of __**those **__Purebloods…"_

"_Those Purebloods?"_

"_One who would shack up with people who had the very likely potential of being a distant relative. Am I really one of the only ones left here whose marriage hasn't been arranged?" There could be no other explanation of why the hell this random Slytherin Pureblood friend of Tom's was suddenly paying her attention. _

"_Well, yes. And I would have thought you'd be a bit more appreciate, frankly." _

"_Why?"_

_The boy looked befuddled, almost stunned. "Well…" he gestured to himself – his face and his body – and then to Eileen's scrawny boyish frame. _

"_Merlin, I have never heard such enticing repartee." Eileen snapped, trying to maintain an air of nonchalance when in truth her insides were squirming with all-too-familiar hurt. The most insulting part of his action was that he was not all that physically attractive himself. _

"_At any rate, even though it is an extremely impudent act of yours to make me have to admit to such a thing – but my affections lie elsewhere." They certainly did. Dear half-blood Tom was such a breath of fresh air from all this inbred Pureblood mania._

"_What… with Tom?" Eileen was infuriated to see a slight smirk appearing on the inbred sods face. _

"_What if it is?" she sniffed indignantly. The boy began to fall about with laughter then, selectively overlooking his evident aristocratic airs and graces – something Eileen was quick to spot, having overlooked hers many times before. _

"_Oh come on, Eileen-"_

"_It's 'come on, Miss __**Prince**__'__ to you!"_

"_Tom was the one who __**instructed **__me to ask for your company. At least he thinks __**that **__highly of you, Miss Prince, that we are to form a Pureblooded alliance. Surely that should be enough for someone of your…ah… disposition."_

"_My disposition! Instructed!"_

"_Please, cease with the hysterics. Frankly, I fail to understand what the problem here is. You – an unattached Prince; myself – an unattached Black… think of our families elation at such a match!" _

_He was obviously a fruitloop. They were all fruitloops. Eileen really couldn't blame that on them of course, anyone would be slightly unbalanced if they simultaneously had an uncle, father, aunt, mother, cousin, niece and nephew for parents. She started to feel a bit unbalanced herself at the thought of her own family. That was the only…_

"_Black?" _

_The mention of the name turned Eileen's already unnaturally pale face stark white. _

"_Orion Black." He smiled, clearly getting the wrong end of the stick. "The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black. Now I am sure you see the vital importance of an alliance between our families."_

"_I…" but Eileen's tirades of insults were lost on both herself and Orion. She didn't feel playfully angered and amused anymore; she felt nothing but white-hot terror. Now all she saw when she looked at him was that man… that __**man**__… who could very well have been this boy's father. "I have to…"_

_She stumbled briefly against wall, and, regaining her balance enough to keep herself upright, shoved the perplexed Orion Black out of her way as she raced down the corridor in search for Tom. _

_He was where she gathered he was headed. The Prefects study hall. Fortunately (and Eileen never thought she'd use that term in referring to what she was about to next), a gaggle of girls had stopped Tom just outside the room, which gave Eileen the chance to get to him… she obviously had no access to him from within the password-guarded walls of the Prefects rooms. The four giggling girls looked almost like an elegant waterfall of blonde and brown curls, red ribbons and flawless snow-white skin - which did not give them the air of someone sickly with a noxious sour pallor as it did to Eileen's, but rather showed the immaculate privilege given only to those most wealthy and aristocratic. Pure white virgins to hard labour and unforgiving elements. Eileen of course, was all of these things, but possessed none of the physical rewards._

"_Tom."_

_Even Eileen was starting to doubt her existence. _

"_Tom?" _

_This time she was directly in front of him at the doorway; the four other girls looked rather excited by all the apparent drama but she didn't care for them. _

_With a charmed smile and a courteous nod to all but the ebony head, the door slammed shut. _

_Eileen sat silently on her bed in the Ravenclaw dorm barely ten minutes later. She must have stared at the stone wall opposite her for at least an hour – deciphering where the various cracks had come from was a whole lot better of an idea than coming to terms with how used she felt. How stupid and ugly and unworthy she felt. How… how her dear friend had been expelled because of her own greed, and of her selfish want to be noticed and envied… how Tom Riddle had casually pawned her off as if she were some broken piece of furniture he had no need for anymore… that inbred moron Orion Black… no, it was too much to muse on. Far too much for a girl of fourteen._

_There was a black ink mark on the wall… how on earth could that have got there? It wasn't a splatter, but a definite line. What girl, perhaps years and years ago, had made that mark and why? Eileen lay her fragile body down sideways and continued to stare at it, immersing herself in it, and when the black mark became blurred and swirled within her vision she viciously rubbed the salty stingers from her eyes and merely continued to watch. Eileen started to see herself in that wall after a while…_

_She slept fully clothed and dreamed of pushing every single wizard she ever knew promptly off the Astronomy tower – and when she woke wished she was strong enough to actually do it. _

_

* * *

_

A/N: It's... been a while. Sorry. Working in ICU is... well... intense, as the name suggests ;) and I sort of just collapse onto my couch every day and don't have the energy to do much, least of all write a backstory that I'm obsessively dedicated to getting exactly how I envision it. Heh.

Hope you enjoy this chapter and check out my new fic if you haven't already... thanks ever so much readers, and have a fabulous few weeks :)


	21. Can't Live With Them

**The Pureblood Prince**

**Chapter XXI – Can't Live With Them, Can't Live With Them. **

Tobias's birthday. It was a day that Eileen had begun to increasingly look less and less forward to as the decades droned on. When they had first married they would spend the entire evening with his family – and it was never as bad as Eileen assumed it was going to be; Tobias's parents had never trusted her, but at least Veronica attempted to love her as a daughter-in-law… the same could not be said for Toby's brother and his wife and children, but it was something that Eileen could certainly deal with.

In the years that followed, the amount of time that the Snape's spent at Spinner's End grew remarkably less and less, and the rate at which Theo Snape and his much prettier, much dimmer wife threw snide insults in Eileen's direction, assuming that she was as dull in the mind as she was in her looks, grew more and more. Last year they had come for one brew and a couple of stale biscuits and left poste haste; this year looked to be following quite the same decline of time spent and incline of attempted provocation.

"S'all downhill from 'ere yer know!" Theo smirked, as the six family members congregated just within the front door as Tobias answered it. He clapped his younger brother on the back and lazily threw his smoky leather jacket around the banister of the stairs.

"Yeah, yeah, yer remind me every year." Toby replied quietly, giving a quick kiss on the cheek to his sister-in-law. "Alright, Sarah?"

"Hiya, Toby." The pretty blonde woman replied as she squeezed past the tiny corridor.

Eileen could not hear the rest of their conversation as they moved into the living room; most of it was drowned out by her two niece's loud chattering. She rested her head against the bathroom door and gazed up at the mouldy ceiling uneasily. She didn't think she had enough strength in her to face all six of them alone – she especially hated the way Sarah Snape would smirk in victory every single time she caught her eye…

_Knock! Knock!_

"Ei?" came Toby's voice from beyond the door.

"I'll… I'll be there in a second." She replied loudly.

"Let me in, Eileen."

She could almost feel him leaning upon her on the other side. With a heavy sigh and a swift hand through her hair to at least tidy it up just a tiny bit, Eileen clicked the lock over and walked over to the bath.

"I think yer've been wallowing in here enough, don't you?" Toby asked, sounding a lot less angered now that he hadn't been forced to ram his body through the door like he had done several times before.

"Sorry, Toby."

She genuinely was. If there was one day that she should try her hardest to make him happy, it was this day.

"They're waiting downstairs for you and I'm runnin' out of excuses here," Tobias said, sounding rather anxious.

"It's a bit difficult to socialise over tea and biscuits when my son has gone missing."

"_Our _son."

"You should've told them not to come!"

"And-!" Tobias had to stop momentarily to lower his voice back to a whisper. "… and cut myself outta my own family even more than I have done? All you would've done is sit here and waste away anyway! _I _deserve some company for a change! And don't say I haven't tried to find him!" He added as Eileen opened her mouth to speak. "Yer the one who told me to put down the phone when I was gonna call the police – believe it or not my son's disappearance doesn' actually make me _leap_ for joy."

She couldn't fault him there… she had stopped him from calling the Muggle police, and as much as Severus would never believe it in a million and one years, his father _had_ wanted to call them; but she knew it would do no good. If she had really opened up to herself Eileen would have admitted that, deep down, she had known from the start where Severus had gone, and as much as it tore her insides apart she knew that she could not do a single thing about it… Eileen had promised herself to let him make his own way for himself after he had come of age – it was gift that her own parents, the richest of people, could never afford to give her. She was pretty positive that Tobias knew that she knew something of their son's whereabouts, too.

"I know."

It was all she could say.

Toby's demeanour seemed to soften a tad as he gazed at her; Eileen figured he perhaps did have enough sense to see that she was at breaking point already. "Come on, Princess," he whispered as he moved toward his sickly wife and kissed her icy lips.

"Don't call me that anymore," Eileen snapped as she kissed him back – hating him, loving him.

"Don't embarrass me in front of my brother by locking yerself up here then."

His tiny wife put her hands on hips that were barely there. "Give me five minutes."

By the time Eileen had brushed her hair into a semi-presentable ponytail, pulled one of her nicer outfits on and arrived in the living room, the Snape's were already drinking the tea that she had made sure to buy especially for today.

"Hello, my pet!" Veronica greeted as the others mumbled a less boisterous greeting. "We was wondering where yer had gotten to!"

Eileen smiled timidly, feeling extremely uneasy with so many faces on her.

"So where is young Severe-us today?" Theo asked with a cheeky smile toward his two daughters who both grinned back at their father. Eileen was very happy to see Toby cast a dark look upon his older brother.

"Stayin' at a school friends house in Spain for the holidays." Tobias answered without missing a beat… when it came to lying he was as sharp as a tack.

"_Spain_?" Sarah piped up over a teacup, with an expression that was a mixture of astonishment and disbelief, and an expression that Eileen was itching to slap off.

"Yeah?" Toby retorted defensively. He was constantly on edge around Theo and Sarah, whom Eileen knew led considerably more lucrative lives in Leeds – while not the richest of people in the slightest, they certainly earned more in a week than Toby did in six months.

"Oh, Majorca were beautiful last summer…" Theodore said, oblivious to the sight of his younger brother sinking deeper and deeper into the couch. "Carla and Rachel 'ere had a whale of a time at the beach didn't yer, girls?"

Toby and Eileen's nieces nodded enthusiastically. Tobias forced a smile and replied "did yer now?" at Rachel, the youngest girl of eighteen, when she looked at him.

"Have you been to Spain, Uncle Toby?" Carla asked inquisitively.

"Nah, too hot for me." Tobias replied quickly.

"What about you, Eileen? Ever had a holiday before yer met this tight arse brother of mine?" Theo joked; it was probably fortunate that he didn't hear Tobias scoff in the distance.

"Just camping around the country. Severus will have to tell us all about Spain though," No one needed to know that she had, in fact, travelled all over Europe with her parents by the time she was eight and most other continents during every school holiday… least of all Tobias.

"Yeah he will; by heck, who'd 've thought…" Sarah muttered.

"Anyone for some cake?" Eileen addressed a little too loudly.

* * *

The simple birthday sponge cake moved from the kitchen to the living room at a snails pace. Eileen stomped into the kitchen and pulled out her ponytail violently, letting her black hair tumble down around her face like a curtain – she felt somehow safer that way. She made far too much noise taking out all of the cutlery, and cursed herself when she saw that there were not enough plates to go around. Perhaps Sarah Snape wouldn't eat any… Merlin knew the woman probably wouldn't eat anything that hadn't been freshly plucked from an exclusive organic meadow in the south of France somewhere. She hoped her sister-in-law would get enough evidence from this household to give her superiority complex a supply of yearly sustenance so that she could bugger off back to Leeds as soon as possible.

The youngest Mrs. Snape spitefully shoved an entire piece of cake into her mouth and closed her eyes, momentarily savouring the sweet, saccharine taste that coated her palate; a flavour she seldom experienced.

"Ei!"

Her husband's head appeared around the wall. Upon the sight of his wife standing in the middle of the kitchen with a face full of cake he grinned.

"Couldn't wait to shove yer face into my birthday cake?"

"Not – enough – plates - " Eileen mumbled through sponge. She swiped away a bit of cream from her lips and went to wash it under the tap before re-considering and decided to lick it off her fingertip instead. No use wasting such a treat. She almost laughed at herself for thinking that thought… _I lived in a manor with servants who cooked me Wizarding delicacies from around the world on a daily basis, and now I'm scoffing every single last bit of a two pound fifty pence cake from the specials fridge in Tesco's…_

"Just put them on kitchen roll and forget the plates," Toby said as he begun to hack at the cake with a knife.

"We don't have any kitchen roll."

Eileen didn't need to explain why. Toby looked up at her with his almond coloured eyes and a stare that made her feel extremely sorry for him. He worked so hard, especially now that he had started full-time work at the cotton factory again, and he couldn't even afford his family the simplest of usual household utilities.

"Ah… and yer can't…?"

"No. I can't do any Transfiguring without my wand."

Some of the old resentment came trickling back, but it wasn't enough to make her detest him again – not yet.

"Pity…" Tobias leaned against the counter and gazed out of the window that looked nothing more than a plain red-bricked wall separating them from the rest of the cramped council houses. "Was hoping yer could somehow wave that stupid stick and make time go faster or sommet."

A wave of what almost could be considered joy, given the circumstances, flooded over Eileen. It was the first time that night she hadn't felt like a complete outsider seeing that her son was not there to be an outsider with her.

"Not even a wand could do that, Toby; you couldn't even do that with a time tu... never mind," Eileen dismissed her own words, she didn't want good Toby to turn into bad Toby over her nattering on about the subject matter that annoyed him most in the world; he might take off to the local and the whole cycle would start again. "Just take out the damn lump of lemon sponge and then we'll be alone in half and hour."

Toby picked up the big plate that he cut the cake into very misshapen slices with and smirked at her. "Alone is soundin' good right now. You know, I haven' had me birthday present yet…"

"Oh? And what do you call what you had this morning?"

"I call that sommet a husband and wife are meant to do tergether; doesn't count as a present if I get the same thing every day…"

Eileen scoffed.

"…Now twice in one day, Ei…"

"Yes, yes, Tobias Snape – I understand the concept. But just so you know: this morning _was_ a present; tonight is marital."

The curve of Toby's lip curled in satisfaction. He made to return to the living room before his wife grabbed his arm. She took another piece of cake from the plate and opened the fridge door.

"Let's take Sarah's piece and eat it later."

"Won't stop yer there. Arrogant bitch."

* * *

**Thanks for the new favourites and reviews. **


	22. A Web Weaved

**The Pureblood Prince**

**Chapter XXII – A Web Weaved**

"_Can you get Hagrid for me, please?"_

"_Hagrid? You mean Rubeus?"_

"_Yes!" Eileen replied in an extremely irritated manner. It would be __**pretty**__ noticeable if Hagrid had a half-giant twin brother or sister stomping around the place. The Gryffindor girl frowned at her, clearly taking offence at the Ravenclaw's severe tone, but moved back into the portrait hole regardless – leaving Eileen to roll her eyes and lean against the stonewall and wait. _

_Five minutes or so later, the very same half-giant emerged from the Gryffindor portrait. He took one long look at the dark figure, masked by her curtain of black hair and gently pressed her: "Leenie?"_

_But Eileen remained with her eyes fixated upon the ground, she could not even bare to look him in the face. Hagrid seemed to gather as much, he almost knelt upon the ground so that he could look up into the black abyss of her tresses and see her, but she moved head away from him. There had been so much she had wanted to tell him, but now all she wanted to do was run away as fast as she could._

"_Have yeh been told-?" he asked innocently. _

_The charcoal curtain nodded. _

"_Hagrid, I am so sorry." Eileen whispered. "I should be going back with you on the Hogwarts Express tomorrow…"_

"_Of course yeh shouldn'!" Hagrid bellowed in protest. "I was the one who brought that egg in in the first place! It was my stupid mistake, not yours! I… Leenie!"_

_Eileen had sunk to the floor, almost physically bowled over with guilt. How could she even tell him that she had tipped Tom off? He was the only real friend she had; she couldn't throw that away, but nor could she keep living with this terrible aching shame. _

"_Are yeh alrigh'?" inquired Hagrid distraughtly, he placed one of his mammoth hands around her shoulder – it was like having a warm blanket gently and lovingly wrapped around her. "Look, Leenie…" he continued as she stayed with her head in her hands, unresponsive. "What good what it do if yeh told Dippet that yeh had a hand in this anyway? He'd only expel us both and then we'd both be dropouts fer the rest of our lives! Leenie, yeh a far better witch than I am a wizard – yeh'd suffer a far worse fate than I will if yeh were expelled and lost advanced magic abilities. Yeh know yeh would."_

"_That doesn't make it right!" she snapped suddenly. "For all anyone knows, __**you **__could've been a great wizard! You… you still could be a great wizard…"_

"_We know that's not true, come on –"_

"_No we don't! How can you doubt yourself so readily?" _

_Beetle and obsidian black eyes were now looking straight into each other. Eileen was finding it much more comforting to channel her guilt into rage rather than wallow in it. _

_A ripple of silence moved between them. A few footsteps were heard further up the corridor coming toward the Gryffindor common room and Hagrid instinctively sat on the floor in front of Eileen, shielding her from sight as four Gryffindor boys jogged up to the portrait. They all took one curious glance at their fellow House member on the floor, who smiled up at them, and were gone as quickly as they appeared. _

"_I dunno about me," Hagrid continued in reply as he shifted to sit next to his friend in the shadows, "but I don't doubt yeh, Eileen Prince, not fer a second. Never will."_

_Eileen couldn't hold it in for a second longer. _

"_Hagrid, I was the one who told Tom about Aragog!" she exclaimed. "He promised he wouldn't tell anyone unless… unless it hurt someone. And-"_

"_Yeh don't think Aragog killed that poor girl, do yeh?" said Hagrid; apparently he had picked that confession to be most surprised at. "It wasn't him! He would never! The story that Dippet's spinnin' about Myrtle being in some kind of tragic accident is probably more to the truth! But as if they'd listen ter me! Tell me yeh don't believe them? Yeh his daddy!"_

_Eileen shook her head; truth be told she was actually quite sure that Aragog had done the horrible deed - but she desperately did not want to upset Hagrid any further. "No I don't, but… but you can see how Tom might have thought that he did…"_

_Hagrid sighed and rest his head against the wall miserably. _

"_Why did yeh have to tell him?" he asked, sounding like he was about to burst into tears. _

'_Because I stupidly thought he could learn to love an ugly skeleton like me,' was on the tip of Eileen's tongue, but instead she said, "I liked him."_

"_Liked him? Ahh…" Hagrid said, nodding. "Yeh __**like **__him…"_

"_Yes. And now that's ruined everything; it's ruined your whole life." Eileen paused before adding: "but I don't like him anymore; I don't like any wizard anymore." She spoke this with typical clear-cut fourteen-year-old defiance; Hagrid, being only slightly older, completely took in this brash sentiment without any doubt. He also appeared extremely downtrodden at it._

"_It's not gonna ruin everything," he said soothingly. "I mean – we'll still keep in touch, right? We'll still be friends?"_

"_Of course."_

"_N' yeh can tell me all what yeh doing, and perhaps yeh can come see me on the holidays 'n all, or I can maybe come see you!" _

_Eileen doubted that – if her father did not see any social benefit coming from a friendship, then that friendship was usually short-lived, and the thought of her mother's expression if she ever saw a half-giant at their doorstep was almost comical - but she nodded anyway. "Yeah… listen Hagrid, I… I have to go. There's a Gobstones meeting that I should have been at ten minutes ago. I promise I'll write you as soon as you get home."_

"_Kay…" Hagrid said sadly. The Gryffindor and Ravenclaw both stood up, but before any goodbye's were uttered he pulled something out of his pocket. _

"_Dun think I ever want ter see this again," Hagrid sniffed and handed the object to Eileen. "D'yer think yeh could throw it away fer me? Burn it? I couldn't bear doing it myself."_

_Eileen felt tears start to sting at her eyes after she had looked out and made out the object in the darkness; it was the wand that the Ministry wizard had broken completely stripped into thin parts. _

"_Wasn' meant to keep it yeh know," Hagrid explained to her. "Johnson, or whatever that Ministry guy was called, gave it ter Professor Dumbledore ter dispose off but he gave it ter me… I guess he thought it would be a nice keepsake – fine man, Professor Dumbledore is. But I can't… it would mean a lot if yeh destroyed it once and for all fer me, Leenie."_

"_Are you sure?" asked Eileen miserably, letting her eyes continue to adjust upon the mangled pile of wood she held in her shaking hands. So much waste. So much wasted talent. Upon Hagrid's continuing silence she finally said, "okay."_

"_Thank yeh, Leenie," said Hagrid, marble-sized tears now rolling down his face. "I'm… I'm gonna… I'm gonna miss-"_

"_I've got to go Hagrid, I'm sorry," interjected Eileen, exceptionally uncomfortable with this very public display of emotion. She quickly snapped her body away but was unexpectedly pulled back._

"_Just know that there'll always be one wizard who cares for yeh; that ruddy Tom don't know what he's missin' out on." _

"_Thank you, Hagrid." Eileen felt simultaneously touched and even guiltier than she had done when she arrived here… she knew by now how Hagrid felt about her, and she knew that he knew that she did not feel the same. "You're a good friend. And I'll miss you. I'll miss you a lot."_

_Hagrid let go of her the diminutive hand he held in his and nodded in defeat. _

"_Take care, then."_

"_Bye…" Eileen backed off down the corridor._

_Only five seconds had passed before Hagrid shouted: "Oh, and Leenie?"_

_Would she never be able to escape? Eileen turned back around to see him waving her down. _

"_Yes?" _

"_Take good care of Aragog!"_

_Eileen's eyes widened to the size of Galleons. "…Come again?"_


	23. All In A Day's Work

**The Pureblood Prince**

**Chapter XXIII – ****All In A Day's Work****  
**

That morning, he left early. His wife had not been roused as he left their bed. Tobias watched her as he changed… her long black hair had spilled out all over the pillow and her rising and falling pastel breasts, her heavy eyebrows furrowed in concentration even as she slumbered. She looked positively exotic in the morning light; he remembered briefly why he had found her so irresistible once, how she had been so different from the common, dime a dozen women who blended right into the dreary beige town houses that lined the same beige city. Eileen was enigmatically shadowy in contrast. Such contrast. Toby could not help but lustfully ache to see that side of her again.

Pushing self-blame for his wife's suburban demise aside, and the almost torturous enticing temptation to get back into bed with her, Toby let out a small, exasperated groan and forced himself from the room.

The cobblestone alley of Miller Street was a lot like the one of Spinner's End; murky, depressingly uniform with the same identical run-down semi-detached townhouses, the damp pavements strewn with cigarette butts. Though, being a lot closer to the mill than Spinner's End – even by only quarter of a mile or so, it was always infinitely busier here and therefore gave the impression of being at least somewhat looked after… and there were a lot less rats here.

The first lot of shift workers were already making their way to the towering incinerator that loomed above them like some giant, red-bricked overlord… hordes of threadbare men with cigarettes in their hands and colourful language in their mouths waited impatiently at the gate. In less than an hour, Tobias would be doing the exact same thing.

He instead took a turning into alley behind the dingy Lion's Head – a typical northern English pub rank with the thick scent of lager, tobacco and vomit – which also happened to be his third most frequented haunt in the world… actually it could very well have been his second, seeing that spent as little time as he possibly could at home. The man he was meeting was already there… casually leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets and looking almost intentionally shifty.

"Ey up, Snape."

"I've told yer _not _to call me at home!" Tobias snapped, gladly foregoing any greeting.

"By heck, do yer even havea right side of t'bed?" the man smiled, showing an impressive selection of yellow and rotten teeth.

"Yer know how suspicious my wife is, Parker. If she heard _any _of that..." Toby replied, ignoring him.

"Think she has right to be, dun' you? Anyway - yer the best liar I've ever had t'misfortune of knowin', Snape… and s'not like Eileen can hear through t'phone-" Parker replied in a much thicker Yorkshire tongue.

Toby almost bit his own tongue repressing himself from saying _'well, actually - my wife is a witch, so she can probably do whatever the bloody hell she likes.'_ He settled, instead, of replying: "don't do it again. Or else."

"Yer know, I'm gettin' quite sick of these endless power trips yer get off on, Snape. Yer have no authority ter tell me when and where I can demand what's rightfully mine Just like yer have no authority anywhere else; yer on the bottom of t'ladder, t'lowest of t'low, 'n always will be."

Not even half a second had past after Parker spoke that he found himself pressed against the wall with his old friend's hand around his neck. He smirked. This only incensed the other man more; the man who knew quite well that he was nothing, that he had always been nothing - in his joke of a career; next to his brother, next to his wife… his son. If there was thing he didn't need, it was to be reminded of it.

"Make yer feel better, does it, Snape? Shovin' people round like yer own them? Bet it feels good to imagine ownin' something, don't it?"

"Why are yer just about _demanding _to have yer fucking face kicked in?" Tobias spat through clenched teeth, tightening his grip around Parker's neck… but this only seemed to make the man more amused.

"Don't yer think yer should be directin' that question to yer own face?"

"What?"

"I want me brass."

"Brass! Yer call a hundred pounds _brass_? I told yer, I don't got a hundred pounds, I never bloody _will _have!"

"Well yer better find it, ain't yeh?"

It was the first time Toby looked at the man with an air of apprehension. "Or what?" he said, subconsciously releasing his grip and taking a step back.

A small incline of the other mans head told him as much as he needed to know.

"Fine." Toby sniffed proudly. "_Fine. _If yer think it makes yer the better man for tricking someone… someone who yer knew was _very, very _pissed at the time and unable to make any rational decision about accepting certain… substances… by the way."

Parker threw back his head and laughed. "Blamin' me for yer sad addiction now are we? Don't even s'pose I can let yer blame yerself; God knows I'd turn to t'bottle and 'substances' if I 'ad a misses like yours."

"_What,_" Toby snarled threateningly, taking the step that he had taken away back with a vengeance. His voice was barely louder than a whisper - but it overflowed with poison, "is _that _supposed to mean?"

"Means I don't blame yeh, Snape. Means I'd also need ter be smashed beyond repair ter fuck a vampires brains out every ni-"

Parker must have known it was coming - Toby knew how much of an ardent antagonist he was, after all – but he was still caught off-guard as the first blow hit him square in the cheekbone. The two men grappled with each other in the middle of the alleyway - punching and shoving and, on one occasion, kicking, as Parker wrapped his hands around the collar of Toby's leather jacket and threw him to the floor. "Ungh!" Toby moaned as he felt the tip of the boot belt square into his abdomen, winding him senseless. Parker stood back a few feet after delivering the blow and rested, bent over, with his hands on his knees. He had obviously thought himself to be the victor, and this incensed Tobias into rolling over onto his throbbing belly and pushing himself up off the wet cobblestone; his knees gave way the instant he tried to stand - the shooting pains piercing his diaphragm was too much to take in one complete movement - and he remained kneeling, panting, on the floor.

After a few seconds, Parker swiped his nose with the back of his hand; Toby watched him take one look at the smeared bloody contents and smirk.

"Touched a nerve, I see."

"Don't yer - _ever -_ insult - my wife – again…" Toby panted, spitting out blood of his own.

"Sorry. Forgot yer do enough of that yerself. How's that poofter son of yours, eh? T'one who yer bitch and moan about every fucking day at the Lion; how he and Eileen are in cahoots ter make yer life miserable?"

"Fuck off."

He didn't even know what he was fighting anymore; he couldn't even refute was Parker was saying… he had indeed said every word of what was being thrown back in his face. He supposed it was the guilt, more than anything, that said poofter son had vanished without a trace (though he was absolutely certain Eileen knew something of his whereabouts, considering how blasé she was being about the whole ordeal) and had left Tobias with his wish… but this granted wish had not made Toby the slightest bit happier, surprisingly.

"Nah, that's more sommet yer would do ain't it, if yer had the slightest chance? Fuck off and leave the both of them the minute any other offer came up, like the coward yer are."

"What? So it ain't bad enough that I've somehow got to pull one hundred fucking _pounds_ out of my arse, yer have ter be a right pain in it too?"

"That's about right, yeah. And if yer can't conjure money out thin air," he leant in close. "I suggest yer start thinkin' fast. I'll be at the Lions every day waitin' fer it 'til I start to get impatient."

_Conjure money… that's a thought… _thought Toby; though he quickly dismissed it when he remembered that he had actually been married to Eileen for 22 years, and if she hadn't waved her stupid stick and magicked money into existence by now she never would. Then he also remembered that he had broken said stupid stick. He wasn't sure if Eileen couldn't mend it or simply _wouldn't_ mend it, but either way she didn't seem to want it.

"Great," he finally answered. "Have fun waiting there for ninety years then. Now if there are no other knives yer can find to stab me in the back with, I'm going ter work."

"By all means."

Parker stepped aside and allowed his ex-friend to push his way past him. Before Tobias was barely four feet away from him, he shot: "oh, and Snape? Trust me when I say I ain't waitin' there ninety years. Yer'll be a dead man by the time the month's out if I don't see any brass by then… in fact, I suggest yer go home and have one good fuck for the last time; God knows yer'll no longer be physically able when I'm through with yer."

The exiting brunette man stopped dead in his tracks, and allowed himself a nod and a smirk to spite the other. "I'll bear that in mind," Toby called back quietly. He turned around. "Oh, and Parker?"

* * *

Tobias suspected that the groan from Ei as he came back to Spinners End that evening could very well be audible from here to the summit of Ben Nevis.

"Who?" she asked in a very unenthusiastic manner.

"Parker." Tobias mumbled as he placed his finger to his still throbbing lip. "N' before yer say anything, he were slagging yer off – okay?"

"He slagged me off, and then he punched you in the face...?"

"No!" Tobias snapped, feeling prickles of anger at his wife's dubious tone. "He slagged yer off, _I _punched him in the face."

Ei gazed at him, black eyebrow raised, for a good long five seconds for she spoke again.

"And you forgot whose face you were meant to be punching, or…?"

"Ei, for God's sake don't push me." Toby warned with a threatening finger in her direction. He knew that with Severus absent, she was unbound and limitless in letting her true colours show.

"Sorry."

At least she wasn't up for fighting.

With a long sigh, Ei moved into the kitchen as Tobias took a slow seat on the couch – giving a small moan of relief as the pounding weight on his abdomen settled slightly. For all he knew he could've been working all day harbouring an internal injury. He laid back and closed his eyes; the relaxation of his muscles was, annoyingly, not as therapeutic as he thought it would be… every muscle in his face pounded; with pain or rage he was not sure.

A few footsteps later and a wave of respite spread across his lower jaw as an ice cold damp cloth was held to where his stinging lip had split.

"Hold it there and I'll put a plaster on," his wife instructed. "I just hope you won't need those... what do you call them again? … those _stitches_ in your face."

"Can't yer just make 'em go away? Don't really fancy stitches."

"If I were you, I'd just be thankful that I didn't need them where my poor wife needed them once."

Tobias strangely felt both his temper and lust begin to boil… she was acting as pert and insufferable as she did during their first few years of marriage. He hated it, and loved it at the same time. "What t'fuck is wrong with yer today, woman? Yer never this tetchy even when it's yer time of t'month!"

"What? Despite the fact that our son has disappeared and waiting for my husband to come home every day is like spinning a roulette wheel of various incidents and injuries? Despite the fact that I had to go out and get a job that demeans me so much I don't know how I'll ever live it down? No - absolutely nothing is wrong, darling."

Completely skimming over the latter part of her outburst, Tobias laughed bitterly. "Yer know bloody well where he is, and yer not telling me. I ain't a genius like you two blackheads, Ei, but I ain't a dipshit either. If yer miss him so much, go get him back from wherever place yer _know he is!"_

Eileen had seemingly once again become subdued. She slumped against the wall and folded her arms, avoiding his glare. "I can't."

"I _know _it's sommet ter do with yer lot. Why can't yer? If yer so against the freaks?"

"I just can't!"

"_Why?_"

"Because I'd never forgive myself if I turned out like my parents!" Eileen yelled.

Tobias was torn in his desire to find out just what the bleeding heck she was talking about and his ample distaste of discussing anything that might preoccupy his wife's thoughts all day – and, in particular, all night. He certainly needed her affections tonight, after the day he had been through; in the end he settled for a nod. Tobias knew that too many questions about those hoity-toity Princes would open up a floodgate of excessive dramatics that his honest life in Spinners End could do without.

"Oh... well… don't blame yer there."

Eileen watched him intently for a while, as if on edge for a cue to begin a full-blown rant at the gene pool she sorely hated… but as it never came, she simply tensed up her muscles and stormed into the kitchen where she poured herself a glass of water.

"So what _did _Parker beat you to a pulp for?" Ei asked casually when she came back into the front room for the second time.

"He didn' beat me to a pulp!" Toby scoffed, panging slightly from her slight on his masculinity. "We beat each other to pulps… _what?_"

Eileen was gaping at him with a magnificently condescending look in her eyes. "Alright…" she whispered as she knelt slowly down on the ground, crossed her arms on his lap and gazed up at him with the hauntingly hollow black eyes that he adored. "Why did you beat each _other _to pulps then?" For one mad minute, Toby took her sudden turn of tone and position at his lap for an ulterior motive. He was almost ready to unbutton himself before he caught onto the actuality that her true motive was treating him as you would a wayward child.

"Ah, was nothin'" Toby lied like the natural he was. He could lie for England. "Yer know what Parker's like. Goes out of his way to be Prick of Derbyshire… orderin' people around like – wait - yer got a job?"

"I think I did say that about ten eons ago, yes."

"Doin' what?" he asked excitedly. Ei had paid employment? He couldn't believe his luck!

Eileen looked flabbergasted at his expression. "Well, just waitressing." Her expression fell flat. "It's the only thing I'm really able to do. You know the dingy refectory in Derby town centre I used to work at when I was pregnant? When we really needed… well… the money…"

"… Yeah." The shame from that awful period in time was still too much for him to handle; and that was saying something - considering the concept of feeling guilty for _anything_ had long since been completely scratched out of Tobias Snape's personality. But the visions of drug barons pounding on the same door that, on the other side, harboured his very scared, very tired and very pregnant wife had stuck with him still. A loud banging noise from outside was the only thing that finally snapped them both out of their reminiscent state. Toby guessed another cat had toppled over their dustbin in search of the many rats that prowled their street. That or someone had just been shot. He wouldn't put it past this neighbourhood; it had happened before.

"Well, they had a notice in the window for casual staff. I just popped in and explained my history with the place and there you go," Eileen explained miserably, turning back from where she had snapped around to the noise. "It had to be done."

Had to be done? A wave of cold dread swept across Tobias as a horrible thought struck him to his belly.

"Oh God. Yer not pregnant are yer?" There was no way, no way in hell Toby could put up with another one, especially at this very moment. If their first one turned out to be a total catastrophe when he had been carefully planned for, he shuddered to think what an unwanted accident would grow up to be.

"I wish I could say I wasn't, Toby… but…"

"WHAT?"

A shake of the head told him all he needed to know. His head collapsed into the back of the chair and he let out a small, relieved whimper.

"Who do you think I am? I'm insulted that you think I'd be _that_ careless."

"That was NOT funny, woman! Almost had a stroke!" Another full-blown row would've started up once more were it not for the sudden escape rope Tobias had been handed to get out of the deal with Parker. "So… when do yer start?" he prompted her into speaking once more.

"Tomorrow night." Ei replied with a hint of apprehension in her voice. "You're not…? Never mind."

"Not angry? No, I ain't angry," said Tobias. _Over the moon that now I don't have to experience the mental torture of asking you to go begging to your family for the extra money required if I want to keep my limbs is more what I am. _"I think it's a good idea actually… sooner yer start t'better."

"Really?"

"Who wouldn' want an extra bit of brass around the place?"

Before he could suggest that they head up to the bedroom to celebrate his unsuspecting cash injection, there was a knock at the door. Eileen made a small and barely noticeable intake of breath, and it was clear who she suspected was calling. Tobias suspected it too… and he wanted to be the first one to have a word with the caller – there were things he wanted to say that needed to be kept out of her earshot, else she find some stupid-stick-less way to curse him.

"I'll get it. Might be Parker and I don't want him near yer." He told the lie so sternly and validly that Ei remained glued to the floor without question, looking fairly dispirited.

The small windowpane covering the front door showed no telling signs bar a dark silhouette in the gloomy dusklight; but Tobias could vaguely make out the figureless shape that was common to _those _types of people… that was, the types of people who felt the need to drape themselves in heavy, unnecessary, melodramatic _cloaks. _

As Toby opened the door, inches from punching his son's lights out for stealing his mother's thoughts and attentions away from everything else but him for weeks (and also for having the insolence to go parading around like someone who belonged in a coffin in the dungeons of that Dracula fellow's castle), he did indeed meet an individual in a heavy, unnecessary and melodramatic cloak. But it wasn't Severus.

"Oh… hello. I was wondering if -"

"_Eileen_," Toby bellowed, completely ignoring their greeting and marching back into the front room. He met his wife's curious eyes and violently pointed towards the door. "Deal with this..."

* * *

_A/n: Sorry sorry sorry sorry I haven't updated in ages and then some. I still am continuing with this story and my others - promise. But Uni's started being a harsh and unrelenting Mistress once more. I thought I'd give you all a nice big juicy chapter to make up for my tardiness in my writing. Hope you all enjoy and please stay with me, the journey's far from over. Thank you SO much to those still reading and especially those reviewing. :)_


	24. A Flash of Black

**The Pureblood Prince**

**Chapter XXIV – A Flash of Black. **

"_Eileen._"

Tobias marched back into the front room to meet her curious eyes. He pointed violently towards the door.

"Deal with this."

Her breath was caught deep within her. She knew that look of his. His features were twisted, distorted, with disgust… features that should never be associated with looking upon one's own child – but they so often were here. They were features that should have made her sick. But instead, in their twisted little world, they made her exultant. Eileen shot through the room so fast that she almost lost her footing attempting to dart around the furniture. She didn't know whether she would throw her arms around Severus or throw something a bit more solid at him; since both tenderness and hostility were equally fantastically atypical of her when it came to mothering– it wasn't an easy decision to make.

As Eileen faced the person in the doorway however, it was apparent that no decision needed to be made. The person was certainly of the wizarding world, but she certainly was a girl and certainly not her son.

"Uh… hi." Said the cloaked girl, her eyes still fixed curiously on the spot were Tobias has disappeared off to – she looked positively astounded.

"I'd appreciate it if you took that off around this neighbourhood," Eileen said coldly, gesturing to the long maroon cloak cradling the girl's shoulders. _How she managed to get here in broad daylight without being assaulted by our charming local skinheads… _"This isn't Hogsmeade."

"Yes, well," the young girl replied, unfastening the button attachment and gathering the horrifically unsubtle item of clothing up in her arms. "You tend to forget these things when you Apparate from your house."

"You Appar…? Forgive me for my brashness, but for what do I owe the pleasure? I didn't think Muggle neighbourhoods made the list of door-to-door Potions saleswomen," the older woman asked sardonically.

The girl gave a haughty scoff. "You're Sev's mother, I presume?"

Eileen's black eyes became instantaneously fixated on the girl's chocolate ones upon hearing this. "I am."

She willed her to follow the question with an explanation of his whereabouts, but instead she was met with an open hand.

"Aurora," the girl stated matter-of-factly with absolutely no air of affability. "Aurora Sinistra. I was at in the same year as your son at Hogwarts."

After a few seconds of apprehension, Eileen took the girl's hand. "Mrs. Snape. And I'm sorry to say that my son is presently absent - but I'll tell him you called. Was that all you wanted then?"

"Oh, I didn't really want to see him, " Aurora said – but, catching the peculiar look on Eileen's face, corrected herself. "I mean I don't really _need_ to see him. I just wanted to return this and be on my way, that's all. I think I must've gathered it up with own textbooks when I was rushing around the Slytherin common room…"

Aurora rummaged through the pile in her arms and pulled out a very old book. Eileen looked upon the object now in her hands – it was her old copy of _Advanced Potion Making. _

"Well… thank you." Eileen said stiffly, still rather taken aback by Aurora's sudden appearance. No one had ever called for her son apart from that Lily girl, and even _that_ was years ago. Besides, if she hadn't wanted to see him she could have very well posted the book… she would have offered the girl a cup of tea so that they could be properly introduced were it not for the impatient pacing footsteps coming from the kitchen, and the fact that she seemed eager to get away… and also the fact that Severus would hate her for it. "Was there anything else?"

"No. Guess not. Wouldn't want to annoy your husband any further…" Aurora bit frostily; clearly still affronted by the way she had been treated. Eileen could sometimes quite forget that Toby's behaviour was not _quite_ as acceptable in normal society as it was in their house.

"Very well. I'll tell Severus you called."

"Yes," Aurora piped up. "Yes. Please do. If you could also tell him that it would be wise not to leave his old textbooks lying around for old friends to find – I'd be ever so grateful." Her eyes flashed briefly towards the book. "Pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Snape."

Eileen gave the lowest of polite smiles before Aurora had vanished before her eyes. Her brows immediately dropped into a glare… she hated it when they Disapparated like that; she found it the height of rudeness.

As soon as the clicking of the door handle exuded through the hallway, Tobias came marching back.

"Did yer know that bitch at the door?"

Eileen shook her head.

"But she was obviously one of… _yours, _weren't she?_" _Tobias protested. "Trying ter welcome yer back into the convent or sommet?"

"Please. You think someone with _my_ sexual appetite could ever become a nun?"

"Oh, convent, coven! Yer know what I mean!"

"Contrary to what you may believe, I am not _bosom buddies_ with all witches in Britain," Eileen snapped. "She was some friend of Severus's at school."

"Oh, that's all we need. Fer him to marry someone like you." Toby knocked on the stair banister in frustration. "Yer know, I at least hoped he'd get through this stupid phase and find some nice _normal _lass ter settle down with. Or should I just be thankful he _found _a lass willing to stare at that ugly sour mug every day?"

"You make it so easy for people to hate you, Toby."

"Do me a favour then!"

Her fingers itched with the temptation of swinging the heavy book in her hands right into his temple; right to that galling vein which pounded there every time he flared up.

"And besides!" Eileen continued, shouting a bit more loudly than she had anticipated. "She was only returning some school things. You didn't see every girl at _your _school as a marriage prospect, did you?"

"I wish I bloody well did now!"

He took a firm step toward her, making her instantly shift into a depressingly familiar defensive position. She closed her eyes and willed every magical cell in her body that the stair incident would repeat itself… but all he did was try to wrench the antiquated hardback from her arms; to which she vigorously resisted.

"No!" she objected – almost pleaded. She pulled it back and cradled it, like a jealous child. Seeing Tobias destroy another one of her memories might just be enough to finally break her in two.

"He ain't gonna come back for it, Ei, and even if he does he'll find nowt; I'm taking all that shit down the dump ter teach him a lesson!"

"Well this is mine, so you can't have it!"

Tobias didn't even trouble himself with following her when she stormed up the stairs and slammed the bedroom door in his imagined face. Eileen opened the wardrobe and dug through the furthest corners of it – finally placing her hands around an old box, which was settled between a broken gramophone (_honestly, I don't know how many times I've told Toby to pawn off that piece of junk, _she thought), a few dusty LP records and another box full of Severus's old paintings and stories from primary school; a lot of which had remained at the school due to the "questionable content" greatly concerning his Muggle teachers – even to this day Eileen had to avoid Mrs. Heptinstall's contemptuous eyes whenever they passed on the street… sanctimonious and naive old tart that she was.

She pulled out the box in question, which wasn't as dusty as the others, sat on the bed and opened it to a wonderful scent of dried beetles and ginger roots. The smell of it, along with the clinking of the potions bottles and the spectacle of the ingredients were more than enough to bring so many forgotten memories flooding back: of Professor Slughorn commending her on her Burn-Healing Paste, the nerves just before she captained the Hogwarts Gobstones team to victory during the inter-school finals, drinking Butterbeer with her friend Hagrid in Hogsmeade. It was so bittersweet it was almost laughable. She hastily averted her face away from the painfully delightful smells and picked up the old copy of _Advanced Potion Making _at her feet instead, which she nonchalantly flicked open – preparatory to locking it away with the rest of her memories.

Upon seeing the inside contents of the book, Eileen issued a mighty unimpressed scoff and flicked through the pages from back to front. He had graffitied the _entire _thing. Why on earth would he inflict such a disrespectful act on her old textbooks? As the flicking of the pages ceased, she slammed it shut and made to drop it into the box, but a flash of black made her change her mind. At first glance she assumed it to be the remnants of her name scratched into the inner sleeve of the book – but the clarity and intelligibility of the ink, highly implausible for something written more than twenty years ago, made her change her mind. She opened the sleeve and sure enough, the words '_Eileen Prince - Ravenclaw'_ in the far left corner had been all but scratched out completely… something else had been written in its place, and it was something that made Eileen's stomach prickle with the determination of a hundred baby Acromantula's…

_This book is the property of the Half-Blood Prince. _


	25. A Complex and ManyLayered Thing

Oh, it has been quite some time, hasn't it? :p I am so sorry. This time I really have no excuse... this chapter was incredibly difficult for me to write and I gave up on it for a while. But now it's done I can hopefully get back into the swing of things. I have not abandoned it. I will stick with this until the end.

Thank you for your patience. I have a chapter of Lesser Good being written as we speak.

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**The Pureblood Prince – Chapter XXV**

**A Complex and Many-Layered Thing.**

_The grief-stricken sobs behind the door were far more muted than before; the little hand… his hand… that tapped upon its dirty white paint more blurred and nebulous. Tears stung his eyes red raw. _

"_Ma? Stop crying… please… please stop… I promise I'll stop if you will! Double promise, a billion promise!"_ – ah, but he could still hear this. The rest of the child's words, however, became indistinguishable. It was almost only a faint buzzing. A vast improvement from the day before.

The scene crumbled before him… a wave of blackness burst forth from the wallpaper and covered her in nothingness… he was covering it up, as if he had thrown a cerebral blanket over his own thoughts.

"Well done. Good boy. Another." A distant voice sounded.

He concentrated deeper on him this time. The blackness unfolded on itself… _and there was Aurora: staring at him with a bemused expression in the middle of the Slytherin common room. _

"_You are __**completely**__ amazing, do you know that?"_

Severus felt sudden butterflies in his stomach, and, by the way she smiled at him, tingling elsewhere. Though an embarrassed heat followed when he remembered who else was watching this. It was rather odd, living in the past and present simultaneously…

"_To what end do I owe that observation, Borealis?" he asked her, covering for the sudden rush of pleasure that was swirling in his stomach._ Severus in the present let himself relax further, and continued to forget, and to empty.

The girl in the vision blurred slightly – as if someone had lost the focus on her – her edges became hazy. The room had all but vanished leaving only her form.

"_The fact that you had the sheer will power not to murder your parents for giving you a name like Severus," the girl chuckled nonchalantly. All the butterflies in the younger Severus's stomach had all but curled up and died_… the scene changed only for a few split seconds… _the same girl was crouching on the floor with a face full of tears and surrounded by telescopes_… it was only then that the blackness once again covered them both.

"Too far, you let me get in too far! Again!" the same distant voice commanded.

_He was with was Lily. All of the prickly insecurities that he had always felt around Sinistra had all but vanished and were replaced by pure affection_… though, worryingly to the present-Severus, the same hunger remained. Severus once again let the blackness enter his mind, and the girl he loved had disappeared.

"Good. Another."

There was but a flash of light this time, and then darkness.

"Excellent. Enough!"

And they were back in the manor. Severus collapsed against the table and could not stop himself from shaking. It was not a pleasant feeling to say the least, to have ones mind ripped open at the seams and be plucked at as carelessly as someone who had lost their keys in a bag.

"I don't think someone called Borealis should be saying anything about _your _name." Serafina Prince suddenly stated from where she had seemingly fallen into one of the drawing room's chairs - obviously attempting to break the tension and obviously failing spectacularly.

"_Aurora_," Severus bit tetchily, realising, perhaps for the first time, that he actually didn't take too kindly to people abusing _his_ nickname for her; it was almost _his _property. "Her name is _Aurora_."

Without even glancing at it, Mrs. Prince casually reached for a long cigarette and ignited the end with her wand. "Are you sure you don't-"

If smoke had a voice...

"Outstandingly impressive," Mrs. Prince continued when Severus decided to respond with a glare in substitution for a polite decline. "I daresay after what I have seen these past few sessions that you, my dear, are bound to be the best Occlumens I've ever seen. Far surpassing my own talent for the art."

"I am not your _dear, _thank you very much _Ma'am_ - I am nothing of the sort to you," Severus snapped – and snap he did. By now, and now was a time that was unfortunately far too late, he had above and beyond realised he should never have come here in the first place. It had been under a week, and already this old woman (who he felt as much family warmth from, and towards, as he did a can of baked beans) had done everything his mother had told him she would do. It was most bothersome for a late teenager to admit such a thing about their mother, that she was actually right.

The absolute worst thing about it was that he now had no choice. 'Roped in' barely touched the surface; in fact, it left no trace on the surface at all…

"And I don't need to be here anymore!" He added. "I'm just wasting time with all your ridiculous tests and training!"

"Wasting time?" Mrs. Prince almost choked on her tar cloud. He half wished she had done. "I don't think introducing you to the art of shielding your mind to the Dark Lord is _wasting time_. Call me old-fashioned!"

"Occlumency is something I could, and am, teaching myself," said Severus. "If there is one thing I pride myself on – it is being self-sufficient. And you are clearly not as astute as I expected, if your expectations of me were as low as to assume that I need _any _form of assistance from _you_."

Mrs. Prince smiled a tad too affectionately behind her miasma. Severus frequently received the impression that the nastier he was, the prouder she became.

"Then _why_," she pressed softly "did you freely allow me to break into your mind?"

Severus took a moment to pick out his words with care. "Well…" he murmured poisonously, "a picture speaks a thousand words, after all."

Mrs. Prince looked impressed. He knew that particular look well. It was the look all pureblood folk gave him when they assumed that he had just made up the Muggle sayings spurting forth from his lips right there on the spot. He always hated it when this happened. Severus never could quite gauge what was magical and what was Muggle aphorism… it was something that often, too often, quite annoyingly gave his blood heritage away to other half-bloods and indeed Muggleborns - usually at the most inopportune moments imaginable.

"That… that is _very _true…" said Mrs. Prince, stunned. Then it appeared to dawn on her just what he meant by that. "… You wanted me to feel guilty."

Severus threw his hands up into a shrug.

"Your words," he said. "I cannot be held responsible for what you feel."

'_Oh, well on the same token then, I cannot be held responsible for what happens to your foot when the oh-so-very sharp heel of my boot pierces through it!' – _Oh God, Aurora's voice hit his cerebrum like a freight train. Oh God! He suddenly realised he was arguing with her in his own head! That could not be norm -

"That is the reason you sort me out – to punish me, not to learn from me." Mrs. Prince cut into his thoughts, obviously far more diplomatically than Aurora Sinistra would have done.

"Not originally," he corrected. "I wanted to find the family that I felt it was my duty to seek out…"

He could see her features brightening at this, and immediately wanted to cut them down.

"… to seek out the family who abandoned their own children the moment they made a wrong turn, and come crawling back only when they required a blood-related human weapon to act as the family guard dog."

But they annoyingly were not cut down; there was no drop, no dip, no sinking of her greyed and sickly face whatsoever. In fact, if anything, it appeared to intensifying.

"Oh?" she piped, rolling the cigarette around between her fingers. "Is that what you think? May I draw your attention to the reason you _are _joining the Death Eaters?"

"Because _you _don't have the backbone to safeguard your own family – any further questions?"

"I think you want more than that."

"You have no idea what I want."

"I know you crave power from our first meeting," Mrs. Prince mused, almost to herself. "And I _certainly _know that you crave recognition from your memories you so gracefully bestowed upon me… I saw you with that redhead several times, I could see it in your face – how many times your heart sank when she failed to react to you. And I felt what you felt when that other Borealis girl was on the very _brink _of giving you a shred of the feelings that you felt for her. _That _is what you want."

"_Shut-up_! Aurora and Lil… _they _have nothing to do with this and if you _mention_ them again, I swear to God -!"

"Ah, but your cravings – they have everything to do with this. Why else would you be here, asking me for a way into the fold? To safeguard the Prince's? The family you never knew? To play carer to your sickly old grandmamma, the one who held onto millions of Galleons while her daughter rotted in poverty and destitution? Hah! No."

She tapped out the last of the ashes of her cigarette and walked over to the furthest door, which she proceeded to peek out of. With an inner jolt, Severus realised that her antique husband must have been sitting in there the entire time. She turned back around looking slightly unhappy… probably because he was still breathing.

He must have been, what, thirty years her elder? Severus inwardly shuddered. Marriage was a horrific thing. This marriage was a nauseatingly horrific thing.

"No," Mrs. Prince started up once again. "With some people it's a substance, a material object, something they can ingest and swig perhaps. With you it is recognition, respect… to have someone finally appreciate you – ah, but the people you want it from the most are always keeping it at an arms length, dangling it in front of you, and you _love _the feeling of craving it. Yes. Thanks to your attempt at a self-reproach, I now know a lot about you."

"Legilimency is flashes, pictures! It is not mind reading! You cannot possibly believe that I don't already know that," snarled Severus. He rubbed his temples vigorously; it was as if she still lingered within its chamber even after he had completely shut the doors… he vowed there and then that he would never open it again, to anyone. "You know _nothing._"

Gallingly, the old Galleon-digging woman simply chuckled and stubbed out her cigarette on a silver platted ashtray.

"Speaking of," she said. "Have you practiced your Legilimency this morning?"

"Who do you recommend I practice it on? The House Elf? The bees in the garden? That stupid kneazle that somehow keeps materialising on my bed no matter how many times I lock the-"

"Oh, Bella! She was your mother's pet kneazle… funny that she has appeared to a take a liking to you as well, you know. She has a knack of attempting to hack everyone else to death."

Severus faltered for a second or two. Ever since he had arrived at Prince Manor he had never truly stopped to take in the concept that his mother had actually grown up here. To him she had always been… _there_, in Spinners End, depressed, broke and depleted of all optimism. She had never been a _real _pureblood witch with a stately home and tickets to Quidditch World Cups and pet kneazles. And she had given everything away for a sadistic drunkard and a terrace house where it was an all too regular occurrence to wake up in the middle of night with a cockroach running up one's leg?

"I don't – I don't care about the damned kneazle!"

"No, I suppose you don't." Mrs. Prince agreed. "I'd wager, however, that you care greatly about the reasons _why _you never grew up as a wealthy and cultivated beneficiary?"

"I _am_ cultivated." Severus retorted defensively, and all too automatically.

"Well - from where your mother chose to dump you, _that _is nothing short of a miracle. Honestly, my dear boy, I am surprised you even went to Hogwarts at _all_…"

It may have been the post-Occlumency-training shock to the system - but the more Serafina spoke, the more Severus began to see the woman he first he encountered in Hagrid's hut. The ailing, frail and desperate elderly grandmother seemed to be withering away before his eyes just as quickly as she had withered into sickness.

"You're not dying." He did not even bother to follow this with an: 'are you?'. It was far too painfully palpable to even humour her with one.

It was Serafina's turn to falter.

"What on earth makes –"

"Oh, this would make for wonderful Legilimency practice, I thank you." Severus bared his uneven teeth in the most sardonically jubilant state he could manage and leaned back against his chair, folding both arms and legs.

"I am dying," said Mrs. Prince. "And you will not acquire any valuable answers from me. I suggest you search in other rooms…" her black, wrinkle-enveloped eyes flickered to the left. "… There are those who have more to conceal than I."

A more fitting string of words could not have possibly been uttered. Severus's lip curled in triumph; he was winning.

"_Liar_." He uttered silkily. Her mind was betraying her the more he fixed his mind's eye on her. He sensed her thoughts rapidly re-arranging themselves as if in dance and soon her eyes became impenetrable once more, but the window had been opened…

He raised his wand.

"Severus…"

"_Finite_."

"_Protego!"_

Serafina's Shield spell collided into Severus's own, sending it straight back at him. It merely bounced off his chest with the force of several cotton wool balls and evaporated into tiny sparks of smoke upon contact.

It was met with a curious raised eyebrow.

"Well, we now know two things, Madam – that I really am this ugly and that you undoubtedly have something to hide. _Expelliarmus, Finite!_"

The order in which the curses happened was so quick that it was almost impossible to detect which one had affected Serafina first. All Severus knew was that his grandmother's wand had shot vertically upward toward the sky-scraping ceiling and that she was holding out one of her hands to catch it while shielding her face with the other.

"_Accio!"_

But Severus's wand was trained on her own before she could manage it. Spells came out of him as fast as film cells composing moving pictures. The wand torpedoed right into his ready palm, and he was now left with two weapons trained on the woman who was now squirming so harshly that she had actually tumbled onto the floor. Ripples appeared to be consuming her entire body, and her hands were sporadically all over the place - trying to swathe all of her at once, but to no avail. He watched with baited breath as stringy, parched grey hair transformed into ebony silk… wrinkles vanished as if flooded by life… she knew that she would have to face him now, there was no other option… it was this realisation that also coincided with Severus's first feeling of any sort of remorse for what he was doing. He had just rendered this woman completely helpless and he was _standing _here with _two _wands trained on her.

Severus could not take this anymore. He looked away and threw the wand back toward the panting woman, all the while shaking off the features of his father - features that were beginning to creep into his flesh and burn him.

"_Why…_" he began. "… did you reduce me to this?"

"What sort of Death Eater would you be if you weren't ready to exercise your power?"

"STRIKING A WOMAN IS NOT POWER! It is the _epicentre_ of cowardice!"

Serafina finally dropped her hands and wiped her ivy coloured robes tidy with them. It was as if the ground on which they stood remained constant, but the hands on the clocks around them had backtracked several billion rotations. She stood to her full impressive height, all sickness and ugliness forgotten under _Finite's _undoing power. God, she must've been almost _fifty _years younger than her husband, Severus realised with a jolt of stomach-churning disbelief.

She sighed.

"You never struck me, you silly boy; you never laid a finger on me. And as you can see…" she motioned to her new (or was it old? Or was it simultaneously new and old?) physical form, "I indeed would be more than capable of defending myself. Though now I see that it obviously hits a nerve with you - I have a few people I would _so _dearly love you to re-educate regarding that issue. Think of their… _edification_ as an initiation rite if you will. "

He could almost physically see the letters _T. O. B. I. A. S. _in flashing red lights above her head with the venom in which she spat the latter part of her sentence.

"Ah. I would never have guessed..." Severus replied calmly. He lowered his wand which he only just realised was still pointing toward her, and it was shaking.

"But first," he continued, moving a couple of steps closer to the woman who had done nothing but deceive since the moment he arrived, "I want the truth and I will not let you leave this room until I get it. I think I am owed that modest slice of remuneration at the very least… don't you agree, _grandmamma_?"

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**Thank you for all your reviews so far.**


	26. Necessary Evil

Hello readers... long time no writing, I know. Hopefully this long chapter will make up for it. I've been getting through graduating university at the moment so after it all settles down I should hopefully be able to write more. Please enjoy, and review.

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**The Pureblood Prince - XXVI**

**Necessary Evil.**

The lunch rush had all but come and gone at the dingy teashop several cobblestone streets from the factory. They called it a teashop because the words 'Silk St. Teashoppe' was plastered in barely legible faded silver lettering over the entrance… certainly not because it resembled anything like a shop that deserved to be titled in Olde English. Eileen knew it as a communal trough.

There were fewer locals here today due to the rain. Most of them would have taken lunch breaks with their wives and young children and babies if they had them – and most of them had far too many than they could afford: a prime example had just visited the trough this morning… two in her pram, two on her arms, what seemed like several hundred trailing behind her, only one English breakfast ordered that they all shared between them… one would think that there was nothing else to do in Northern England than fornicate. Well, Eileen thought as she returned to the kitchen with handfuls of dripping towels from the inevitable spillage of milk from one of the screaming brats, perhaps fornicating _was _the only law-bidding thing to prevent boredom around here – but they certainly didn't have to procreate every single time they did it.

She wiped her sweaty brow with the back of one hand and took this quiet moment to think - a rare luxury given the state of things today. The bordering-on-elderly and excessively plump cook continued to shoot gratuitous glares behind the steel shelves in Eileen's direction, even though two words had been spoken between the two women since she had been re-hired. Eileen enjoyed it more than she resented it; the old bag was clearly jealous that were was a younger and more attractive woman working within the premises, and it wasn't every day that Eileen could call herself the more attractive woman. She'd thought she might savour it while she could. She was now Queen of this territory… grimy and claustrophobic and filled with the sickly second-hand smoke that had removed itself from the factory workers jackets that it was.

"Them pots need scrapin'" the blue-rinsed crone from the kitchen squawked after exactly one and a half seconds of glowering at the newly hired waitress stopping to take a breath. A wrinkly hand jabbed itself in the sink's direction.

"So they do." All too familiar reality came crashing down again when Eileen laid eyes on the tower of stained crockery. She almost couldn't fathom that at this present time there was an Advanced Potions book in her wardrobe containing scribbles of invented incantations – all seemingly authored by her son. It sounded like a fairytale in comparison to the life she was living; the most frightening thing was that she was actually starting to believe it _was _all just a fairytale. Eileen blew a tuft of sticky, sweaty black hair out of her eyes and pulled the scour brush out of the dirty pool in the sink.

"_What, Maggie?_" she snapped at the increasingly infuriating glower still radiating from the fat bitch in the corner.

"Ooh, a person can' use her eyes now, can she?" Maggie countered, a trail of spit landing on the slab of pastry she was rolling.

"Not on me, you can't!" _And by Merlin, woman, if you keep doing so that saliva-infused piece of custard tart will be the last thing you ever touch. _

The cook snorted. "Yeh know I don' know how yer managed to claw yer way back into t'place, Snape. Yeh were a miserable little trollop then and yer a miserable little trollop now."

"Ah, what a life you've lived - recalling what I was like almost twenty years ago. I am profoundly touched." Eileen mumbled as she slammed the various soapy kitchen utensils down on the bench one-by-one.

"At least my husband's not an unemployed good fer nothing-"

"You what?"

It was perhaps the first time that Maggie looked into Eileen's eyes, and they were ferocious.

"Nothin', nothin'… how is Toby?"

"No, not nothing." Eileen stated as fact. "Not _nothing. _I'll have you know that my husband is now re-employed at his previous post after his accident and thank you for your concern."

A few minutes dragged out between them after which Eileen snatched the tart from the cook's hands and stormed into the dining room – barely reaching the point between kitchen tiles and dusty floorboards before the inevitable retort.

"Shame yer didn' finish the job really-"

A shatter and a scream simultaneously erupted from the kitchen – both Eileen and the young mother in the dining room turned to the sight of a dozen pots, sieves, ladles and skewers over the floor directly below the visibly shaken cook. The hanger had evidently collapsed on her head…

"Oh dear." Eileen muttered under her breath, and then walked over and handed the plate to the woman. "There must be magic afoot here!" she said, happily flashing a rare smile at one of the less repellent children looking up at her from the table.

"Magic!" the youngster reiterated excitedly.

Eileen smirked. It was certainly a universal response for all particularly imaginative children. It was all so simple. Sev had once said the exact same thing to her when she had sat him down in her lap and whispered that it was all real, that he wasn't imagining it, as Tobias had told him; he could do anything he put his mind to.

And _he _had looked at her the way this child did now… and she knew that all he was thinking was being able to fly or to point a wand at the stars and make them race around the sky, and she knew she would forever wish to have this moment back. Of course, she didn't know just _how _much…

She caught herself before she started telling this particular Muggle boy the same thing. Instead she said, "Would you like a special chocolate milk for well-behaved boys?" – making sure the siblings didn't hear.

"Snape."

Eileen turned away; it was William Tilbrook, owner of The Silk St. since time began and back from his two hourly lunch break.

"Excuse me, young man." Eileen said most genteelly to the boy who went from looking bitterly disappointed after being robbed of his free drink to rather proud of himself after being addressed in such a manner. She walked over to the figure looming in the doorway. He was a squat little man who possessed the notion that the more gold chains and teeth you had, the closer you were to the middle and upper-class… a notion plenty of people round this town had, and one that Eileen failed to see the origin of, herself originally being from the upper-class and all. She knew that was the reason he had probably hired her here twenty years ago.

"Bill."

"E'rything alight, darlin'?"

"Fine. Why shouldn't it be?"

"Ah, well, it should be, it should be…" he mused. "Know anythin' bout' this?" a stubby hand jabbed at the mound of pots. He wasn't a mean man, and he didn't ask in a mean way, but Eileen still felt affronted (even if she did know something about it).

"No? I heard it, obviously. I was in the dining room serving…"

Billy looked for confirmation from Maggie who gave a great big sigh.

"She was." Maggie consented, sounding as if she would given anything to have dragged Eileen back in there if she knew the boss was coming – but was a half-decent woman, and she never lied, it was why Eileen didn't mind being called a miserable little trollop, because that was _certainly_ honest.

The boss affectionately patted the bony shoulder, which was more than a foot taller than him. Eileen tensed. Men's hands scared her still. "I dunno what it is about yer, pet. Every time I let yer back in here somethin' always falls of t'wall or catches alight. Nearly burned the entire place down once, yeh remember! What a day!"

Ah, the cooker-capriciously-catching-alight incident, she had almost forgotten about that… a particularly bad argument with Toby in the morning coupled with agonisingly merciless morning sickness in the throes of blissful early pregnancy. Any witch would have set the kitchen alight - it was only natural. She had done it countless number of times in her own kitchen.

"I did no such thing." Eileen protested defensively.

"Jus' pulling yer leg pet. 'ere…" he handed her a very thin envelope. "Go home to yer boys, see yer for the breakfast rush tomorrow."

All of Eileen's already fallen features fell further. He was paying her already? It was only one 'o clock. She had barely worked six and a half hours and for what? Fifteen quid if she was very, very lucky, that's what.

"Are you sure you don't need me until close?"

"Nah, nah, I'll be right ter do that, ta." But Bill had a look in his eyes that told her he knew she was desperate – not that he was going to play along of course. Those eyes told her _'I ain't made of money, darling. I'm doing you a favour letting you back in here you know.'_

"Thanks, Bill." She shoved the envelope into her handbag and made a hasty exit out the back. Bill indeed. Bills that couldn't be paid once again.

As Eileen made her away into the backstreet, she ripped open the envelope – which more peeled away rather than ripped as it was already saturated with rain – and pulled out ten quid. Well… maybe it could feed them for a couple of days at least. It was perhaps the first time that she was glad Severus was with her parents, as she was sure he was; at least there he'd be getting fed enough to get him through the day, and have a warm bed to sleep in. Merlin knew he needed some fattening up.

She hurried along the cobblestones holding the collar of her coat over her head and made her way over to the local butchers.

* * *

The minute she got through the door and placed the bread and several slices of ham on the table that afternoon, it started again. Tobias was already home but instead of his usual position slumped on the couch, he had been pacing the room as if expecting a very important phone call. They both exchanged a long and slightly uncomfortable glance as soon as Eileen entered the living room, dripping wet, as if they were both unsure of the mood of the other.

One look at what she had bought seemed to assure Toby, however.

"Yer didn' blow yer wages already!" he groaned.

_Blow __**my **__wages?_

"_Someone_ has to feed you, Toby. Christ knows you're incapable of doing it yourself." Snapped Eileen, opening the backdoor briefly to violently shake the rain from her soaked coat and bag. She stormed back in and threw both of them into the cupboard. "I hardly think making sure you keep on breathing constitutes wasting money."

_Then again, maybe it did._

"Bloody hell, woman." Toby continued to moan and sat back down on the couch. It was as if she had said nothing at all, it was in one ear and out the other with him.

"Oh, shut your face Tobias! You'd think I'd just gone and bought ten pairs of knickers with the way you're carrying on! I spent five pounds on meat and bread!""

"Didn't think yeh knew what knickers were."

Eileen had to take a moment to centre herself before she took a fatal swing at him.

"I could do without your cheek today, thank you; honestly, I have had it up to here with everything these past few weeks…" she toppled into the space on the couch next to her husband and pulled off her shoes, the water had soaked into her stockings so much so that she couldn't feel her feet when she massaged them.

"I'm going to take a shower."

"Why don't yeh take a bath?"

Eileen look back at him, frowning. Tobias stroked her shoulder and smiled, which was rather intimidating but not at all unwelcomed in any way. "What? Yer've 'ad a long day, go relax a bit, might join yeh later if yer lucky."

Eileen felt herself soften slightly, damn him for being so successfully manipulative. Damn her for being blinded by this ridiculous love for him.

"Tempting, but I hardly think it would be comfortable – the both of us squashed into that bucket." She kissed him, her anger forgotten. "I'll be quick, then I'll start dinner."

Toby pulled her back as she pushed away; he cupped her delicate icy face into his hands and kissed her back, and then kissed her again much more deeply, she gave an almost involuntary moan through her lips as she felt his tongue between them… then she gave him hers in return. He wasn't good at this in any sort of aspect, physical affection without ripping her clothes off that was, but the fact that he was actually trying for once made her want to cry. They parted after a minute… Eileen had to push herself up after discovering she was now lying on top of him.

"I'll be quick," she restated.

"How about I meet yeh upstairs?" Toby suggested. "The draft down 'ere is terrible. An' I'll make us some dinner."

"The torment you'll go through to get me into bed after all these years…" she swung her still-numb leg over his hips and made her way over to the door. Toby shifted and looked at her with what could be described as an air of melancholy. "What is it?" she asked.

"Nothin'" he whispered. "Yeh know I love yeh, Ei."

_Sometimes… perhaps… _she thought.

"I know," she said.

And as Eileen stood under the shower five minutes later, feeling blood return into every capillary in her body as the water washed away the stresses of the day, she could have almost completely forgotten the Potions Book that had been permanently etched into the back of her mind since Aurora Sinistra had placed it into her hands. She did forget it for a while.

* * *

Waiting to hear the pipes rush with water behind the wall, Tobias shifted himself off the couch and walked out into the hallway to the bottom of the stairs. He leaned forward and caught a glimpse of the bathroom right at the top of the steps; a light was creeping through its cracked and splintered frame and he could hear water splashing irregularly against the tub… Ei was definitely under it.

He bit his lip so hard that he tasted the metallic tang of blood.

Less than half a second later he found himself ripping open the cupboard door and searching frantically through his wife's handbag.

Tobias Snape had felt low, worthless and insignificant most of his life… but most of his life was nothing compared to how low he felt now. He found a brown leather purse and pulled out her hard earned five-pound note.

"Fuck," he swore bitterly as he shoved the cash into his pocket. Every fibre of his being wanted to eat itself for what he was doing… but there was no other possible way he was going to get that money, no other possible way other than scrounging around for whatever money he could get his hands on, be that the few bob he received for slaving his life away, finding pennies on the street, nicking it from old crones who had left their purses in their shopping trolleys… stealing it from his own wife… he had reached around thirty five quid at the moment – there was still a while to go.

_I have no choice. _He could feel his conscious screaming into his brain. _Once I pay Parker off, I'll be on the straight and narrow, by God I'll get out of this habit, I'll treat Eileen like a Princess when this is over. _

He didn't even believe it, but he told it to himself regardless.

Toby smashed his head against the sharp corner of the cupboard. The throbbing fiery hot pain that resulted was just enough to prevent him from tearing the whole room apart in anger. What he would do for a fucking drink right now. He wondered if he still had that cheap piss he kept hidden behind the fridge left, the lure to check and to down it all in one go was maddeningly strong, as was the urge to spend the five quid in his pocket down the pub – but Ei deserved a sober husband for once, and a husband who paid off his debts in order to protect her from violent loan sharks and drug dealers…

It was the least he could do. It was the most he ever would do.


	27. The Pink Umbrella

**The Pink Umbrella**

_She worked long and tirelessly into the night. While the other girls slept, the odd sound or two of deep breathing echoing along the walls of the dormitory, flashes of white and sounds of sparks were creeping through the gaps of her four-poster's curtains. Thankfully the mid-Autumn rain clapped violently down upon the windowpanes and high steeples of Ravenclaw Tower, and so the noises erupting from her wand as she worked went virtually undetected. She sat cross-legged upon her bed with the shards of wood in her lap; she had two piles of wood on both bare knees – she would pick up one piece, run over it with her wand where it would glow and vibrate momentarily, and then she set it down on her other knee… this knee felt heavier… it was heavy with the magic that the other pile had lost. _

_She knew she was performing magic of the likes she had never seen, and never heard of. And yet, she felt no pride. It had merely been an impulsive action, something that called to her, something that needed to be done to alleviate a shed of her guilt, something for her friend. _

_The sun was beginning to illuminate the cerulean threads of her drapes by the time she had finished enchanting the hundreds of tiny broken strips… but she had finished. She fell against the headboard of her bed and allowed herself a moment to close her eyes and relax. She was utterly exhausted from the sheer amount of power she had exerted – but then, she __**had **__just rebuilt and resurrected a wand, it was to be expected. She wiped her sweaty brow with the back of her hand and ran her fingers through her lanky black hair, sweeping the sticky threads away from her face. She couldn't leave it like this… no matter how magic was restored inside it, it would be unusable if it was still in shreds, and she couldn't glue it together. _

"Lumos_."_

_She stuck her wand (and her head) through the curtains and vigilantly scanned the room with the light. Billions of items of clothing, books, hairbrushes (a viable option but she couldn't really see Hagrid wanting to weave that around), an owl cage, a wet umbrella, a Ravenclaw scarf… she bit her lip and thought for a while... it would have to be a completely non-magical object, and yet something that would be easy to weave and to interlace with the air. That umbrella would have to do. It wasn't even hers but it looked cheap, and she knew Lucy Fawcett wouldn't miss it – every single girl in this room was outrageously wealthy, herself included. _

_She quietly placed her bare feet on the ice-cold stone floor, the rush of coldness sending tingles up her leg all the way along her spine, and tiptoed over to the closed door where she picked up the umbrella still dripping wet from when Lucy came back from her evening stroll that night and had shaken the water all off in their dormitory which made the girls rather disgruntled. She took the umbrella back to bed with her and trusted the heavy rain to dampen the sounds of her breaking the timber of the object in half and implanting the magic-stained wood of the broken wand in various places inside its core. She knew it wouldn't be half as effective as a customary wand, but at least he could hold onto at least a shred of his past, at least he could still feel a part of this world; considering she was still allowed to be a part of it, Hagrid deserved to be too. She swept her wand across the umbrella, making carefully organised criss-crossing patterns in the air as she did so. The shaft of the umbrella began to tighten and fold in on itself, enveloping the broken wand in its depths. She didn't even know how she was doing this, or how she __**knew **__what to do, but she was doing it… it was almost instinctive. It was in her. Magic wasn't all in books or class. It was something that could be felt in every pore. _

_When the umbrella had completely sealed itself, she placed her own wand under her pillow and held the half-wand in her hand, turning it around and observing every inch of her complex work. But she knew that in order to be completely sure of its success one final test had to be undertaken; she pointed it purposefully at her pillow and whispered: "Evanesco". The pillow vanished before her eyes leaving only her wand in its place. She allowed herself a proud smile. _

"Exorior_."_

_The pillow rematerialised. It took longer than it would have done were it her own wand, or any other wand for that matter, the Exorior charm was almost instantaneous (a quarter of a second if one was finicky about these sorts of things and she certainly was), but for a wand that had been rebuilt from shattered shreds, for something that would have been deemed beyond repair even by the most accomplished of wizards and witches, it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad at all. Indeed, she knew it would remain the utmost height of her magical achievements. _

_A shame that only herself and Hagrid would ever know that she was capable of such sorcery. For the rest of the four hours of early morning she allowed herself – she slept hard. _

_He found it that very same day. Hagrid had made his way back from the dinner which Professor Dumbledore insist that he attend… and if Professor Dumbledore insisted then he could not refuse, despite the disdainful glares radiating from Riddle and his band of followers (and even one or two of the teachers who had not yet managed to escape the elaborate stories and lies regarding the Heir of Slytherin that was wrecking havoc around the school). Dumbledore had worked almost to the point of complete exhaustion to keep him at Hogwarts despite his expulsion, and for that he would remain ever grateful, and ever loyal. _

_He thought at first, when he noticed it leaning against the wall on the second step leading up to his hut, that one of the students (one of 'the' students, not one of his 'fellow' students any longer) must have accidentally left it there after the rain had stopped at sunset; Hagrid picked it up and began unlocking the door preparatory to settling by the fire and contemplating his future prospects at the school – which entailed many more years than his ex-school chums would have – when something completely inexplicable struck him… something he could not describe but something that felt extraordinarily familiar, something like home. It was half an unconscious act, but he found himself inside the hut with the umbrella still in his hands, unforgotten… with one swish of the thing he knew in an incomprehensible instant that it was his wand. It was his wand! Hagrid pointed it at a book resting on the mantelpiece and whispered: "_Wingardium Leviosa_". _

_He was never good at Charms, and so it was amazing the thing moved at all, it had titled itself upward and hung in a vertical position for a few seconds before Hagrid released the spell, stunned. _

"_Wha…?" he mumbled into the empty air. _

_And it was then upon further curious inspection he noticed that the handle of the umbrella was rather irregular and slipped between his fingers very unlike a steady plank of wood would do… when Hagrid lifted the handle up to examine he finally found the piece of parchment that had been tied around there and left for him. _

_He ripped it away from its host and unravelled it to reveal its secrets. What he read made his heart crawl up into his throat:_

R. H.

… Not for a second. Never will.

E. P.

_Everything became quite blurry after that… he scrunched up the parchment in one hand and held it very close to his now wet lips. The umbrella tumbled to the floor, forgotten. _


	28. Black Magicians and Black Charms

_Warnings: coarse language, mentions of self-harm. _

**Black Magicians and Black Charms. **

Tobias couldn't bear to look her in the eyes that entire evening. It made fucking her quite awkward.

She didn't seem to realise, though.

"Where have you been hiding that all my married life?" Ei asked, blissfully astounded.

"I just…" Toby was still facing away from her, glaring at the wall. _I just wanted to make up for stealing your money? I just wanted to continuously make up from all the money I am yet to steal from you because I'm bloody coward who can't face telling you how much of a shit we're in with a drug dealer who will probably batter me to death if I don't give him all the money we're ever gonna earn? _"… I just want yeh to be happy is all."

He felt her shift in the bed and press her body against his naked back. A pair of cold lips came into contact with the back of his neck, which made him flinch. He didn't deserve her.

"Well, I'm _very_ happy." Ei's arms snaked their way around his waist, craving contact.

"Good," Toby whispered into his pillow. _Because you won't be when you find all of your cash is missing. There aint no scumbag as scummy as me…_

Suddenly, something stirred, and before he knew it he had pushed his wife away and pulled on his trousers. She didn't question his motives – they had been living together for more than twenty-five years, they were used to coming and goings. He stood on the landing and took a few minutes to compose himself. Anger bubbled up inside his blood to such a level that he began to shake. Fuck, _fuck _he needed a drink. A drink or a smoke or fucking _something. _Sobriety was hell.

Concerned that his constant pacing would alert Ei, he went into Severus's room and locked the door (it was the only room in the house _with _a lock), where he promptly searched for something to hurt himself with. If he couldn't escape with drink, it was his only choice.

He rummaged around in the dark and found that most of Sev's belongings had been packed away and taken with him. There were a few empty bottles underneath his bed that Toby attempted to down despite knowing that they certainly would not, nor had they ever, contained alcohol. He didn't give a shit about that… he just needed something in him to change, and perhaps one of them would succeed in knocking him out. When not one drop of liquid touched his lips he threw it across the other side of the room – gently, though, so that it wouldn't smash and make a ruckus. He fell onto the floor and hit his head hard on the bedpost. A jolt of satisfying pain followed, so he did it once more.

Toby looked around Severus's room that was bathed in the light from the lamppost directly outside. He knew just by looking that the little shit was not going to come back to Spinner's End, not ever. The whole place had been stripped. He was glad that his son wasn't here any longer, _he _would surely notice that his father was nicking money right of his mother's purse and God knows what he would do to him. Ei was much easier to deceive than Severus because she actually loved him. Very foolish of her.

He gave one more sweep underneath the bed for anything consumable when his hand hit something much bigger. Toby pulled out the object in question and squinted in the dim light. Huh. It was that stupid book that Ei had been so protective about that day that girl had dropped it off. _Advanced Potion Making. Advanced _potion making? Bloody ridiculous if you asked him. What could be so difficult about chucking bits of plants and 'eyes of newts' or whatever it was that they always used into a cauldron and stirring it with a ladle?

Toby sat himself down on Severus's bed and flicked through the pages, scoffing about every five seconds or so. Eventually the scoffing turned into tutting, and the tutting turned into grimacing. There were all sorts of awful scribbles and doodlings in these pages, and it was definitely Sev's girly handwriting that had done them. "For enemies…" he mouthed noiselessly as he flicked to a new page, suddenly feeling very edgy. This all looked like black magic to him, whatever that was, and to have a son who appeared to be practising this sort of shite, who also _hated _you, was a distressing thing indeed. He began to feel even worse when he remembered how protective Ei had been about this book… _she _could very well be a black magician too; despite all of her lectures about how "most wizards and witches were fundamentally good, Tobias, it's not a Muggle fairytale", Toby felt every single scrap of authority he still possessed being ripped away from him. He had worked so hard to achieve that authority. You needed every bit of it when you had a wife and a son who could click their fingers and command the most unimaginable acts upon you, and there would be nowt you could do about it. It was his greatest insecurity at the best of times, but seeing his son's work in writing quadrupled that insecurity. He despised the both of them all over again; his guilt had been replaced by a feeling he was far more used to.

He pushed the book quietly back into its hidey-hole and planned to ponder what he was going to do next back in bed. The light was off when returned and he could hear Ei's light breathing. At least she was pleased tonight – he wouldn't be poisoned as he slept. Ah, it was against nature that a husband should be so fucking scared of his woman! Well, she was _never _going to bloody know it.

* * *

Aurora needed a stiff drink after the orientation day at the Academy of Astrophysics. The workload looked fascinating, but the institution itself was daunting. So structured and _so _political… perhaps she should have taken a longer break from Hogwarts before she got into any of that again. Then again, it would mean she would become a well-recognised and revered Astronomer sooner rather than later.

She sat in the darkest booth of the Leaky Cauldron and sipped her redcurrant rum as she flicked through the hundreds of booklets and course materials – the Academy must have had its own adjoining forest to make the amount of trees needed for just this pile.

_Statistical Analysis and Modelling, Cosmology and Advanced Astrophysics, Multivariable Calculus, Electromagnetism, Optics and Photonics… _

The list of what she would be studying the next five years went on. It would have bored the robes off most people and incensed those bigoted magical folk who still thought of Astronomy as completely Muggle, but this was her forte right to the core. Aurora allowed herself a smile over her tankard. Perhaps the future was not so bleak. The music played by the three-man band in the corner had piped up a bit too.

"Blast from the not-so-distant past."

Aurora looked up to the voice that had cast a shadow over her reading material. She sighed. The present certainly looked bleak.

"Sirius." She said curtly.

It was a very awkward moment. Sirius Black wasn't helping the situation by just… _standing _there, either, drink in hand. But when Aurora looked up from her determined glare at the wall, she noticed he was reading what she had in her hand.

"Fuck me, Rora, off to Muggle University? This looks… specialised."

Aurora blinked at him for a few seconds before she answered. "Actually, it's the Academy of Astrophysics here in London. It's a magical institution for Astronomers. Muggle University with a sprinkle of pixie dust, you could say."

Sirius chuckled and she didn't like it.

"Can I assist you at all, Sirius?"

Sirius's grin fell into a more sombre one. He cleared his throat.

"Look… I just… I was drinking at the bar and noticed you here and… I wanted to clear the air a bit, you know? No hard feelings or whatever," he shrugged. "Can I?" he motioned to the spare seat opposite her. Aurora paused for a while before rolling her eyes and nodding apprehensively.

"I really had nothing against you, you know," he continued as he sat himself down. "Seeing as you were here I just thought I'd let you know."

She was rather stunned by this confession. Aurora had always thought of Sirius as your token arrogant tosser with all the sensitivity and understanding of an exceptionally homicidal Redcap; then memory came back to bite her.

"You called me an intrusive bitch."

Sirius pushed an uncomfortable laugh out of his closed lips. "You've called me worse. Come on, we were all stupid idiot teenagers. Anyway, you _are _an intrusive bitch."

She caught herself before she smirked. "You're so full of it," she said as bitingly as possible, despite her amusement. "You think you can stumble up here, crack some jokes and we'll be the best of mates? Pop that head of yours before it gives you a stroke, would you?"

"You _know _Snivellus is a worthless little weed, don't you?"

"Yep," Aurora replied automatically, taking a long sip.

"So why are you protecting him?"

"I am absolutely not!" she protested so raucously that the two witches to the right of them glanced over. "You can both fuck right off as far as I'm concerned. As least Severus already _has_ – maybe you could follow suit_. _Bye-bye_._"

"Ouch, the intrusive bitch has claws. I'm liking you more with each passing minute."

Oh Merlin, what she wouldn't give to knock that stupid grin out of oblivion. Aurora began to flick through her booklets once more, counting down the seconds to which Sirius would finally give up and go back to getting pissed away from her.

When thirty seconds had passed and she still saw his shadow cast over the table, Aurora snapped her eyes back up at him, several rude words on the tip of her tongue… and from the second she did, the urge to suppress a smirk grew even stronger. He was bobbing his head theatrically up and down to the upbeat music.

"Get out of my booth, Black." She commanded - though the smirk finally did appear upon her lips.

"Nope," he retorted, now dancing even more idiotically in his seat. His head was moving to the right and left now.

Aurora's toothy smile defied all cerebral orders. "Can't you go and be an idiot with James?"

"Nah, James is an idiot at home tonight," Sirius replied casually, now moving his arms about in a ridiculously comical fashion. Aurora almost choked on her rum. "And Remus _always _refuses to come out on the prowl, so obviously you're my loneliness crutch for the night; I'm only using you, you see, I'm a pig like that."

"You come out on Friday nights without friends? You must be desperate."

"Hey, you did. Double standards, Sinistra - tut-tut."

"I had business to attend to, that's different."

"Sensible as always. Anyway," he continued, leaning forward slightly in his seat. "I don't need old friends to follow me everywhere I go: I can make new friends. What do you say, Rora?" Sirius held out his hand. "Friends? For the heck of it?"

Now this was a particularly tricky moment; as she frowned into the eyes of the boy she never really had taken much notice of other than the occasional scoff in the corridor in her Hogwarts years, but one who had plagued Severus's thoughts. But Merlin knew she hated Severus more than Sirius hated him - that was for cert. Aurora held out her hand in return - she deserved some frivolous, absolutely hollow happiness for once.

"For the heck of it."

Sirius grinned as he wrapped his rough hand around her softer one. "You made my night, you dirty little Slytherin, thanks for that. Hey, if you're not too busy you should meet us all back here next weekend – promise James and Remus won't bite, it's just me."

Aurora downed the rest of her drink and, feeling slightly uninhibited from the whole thing, packed away her papers into her inner-cloak pockets. "I think that's why you're my favourite."

"Good to know I'm already making a dazzling impression," said Sirius.

"Let's not go nuts; you're the only one who's made an effort," replied Aurora. "I might change my mind if Remus tries to make amends." They both leered at one another.

"Would you like to dance with me?" he suddenly enquired without any trepidation or doubt whatsoever. That confidence was either gratingly irritating or incredibly attractive; Aurora wasn't sure which one quite yet… but she didn't much care at present.

"It would make the decade worthwhile," she replied with equal amount of effrontery.

* * *

**Thank you all for your reviews, as always. I would appreciate some more... they tend to spur me on.  
**


	29. Truth Will Out

**Pureblood Prince 29**

**Truth Will Out**

Severus had spent the better part of the night awake and reconstructing his entire future in his head. Going to Prince Manor was the biggest mistake he'd ever made.

He stared at the slightly off-white tiles of his bathroom at the Sussex Muggle motel contemplating what he should do next, where he should go. He certainly could not afford to stay here another night… his finances were dwindling fast – and by dwindling fast he meant absent.

Slowly, Severus ran his long fingers through his saturated black hair and stepped out of the bath. He realised that he must have been standing there, naked, shivering and thinking for a far longer amount of time than he had actually spent taking a shower. He quickly pulled on his torn jeans and his father's old shirt… Mrs Prince had promised that she would give him everything if he had stayed – the finest robes, the finest education, the finest food, the finest everything – though it was a sort of status he had once dreamed of before, now it all seemed dirty and tainted. Not that Spinner's End was any different. Everything was dirty and tainted.

Maybe he should just move to South Wales and live in a cave for the rest of his life and be done with it.

Maybe he could talk to Aurora… though he fancied his chances more with Lily than with Borealis - and that was saying something.

Faint noises buzzed from outside the door… as he begun to pack his minimal amount of luggage into his Hogwarts chest, Severus knew that wherever he went next, it had to be further away from the general public; the arguing couple downstairs sounded almost as bad as his parents on a good day. The last item he grabbed was his wand, which he shoved into the deep pockets of his jeans.

When he finally got outside his room and into the musky smelling corridor, he came face to face with one half of the arguing couple – and her face lit up in exhausted triumph at the sight of him.

"_Severus."_

"Ma'am! _Ma'am_!" the man behind her shouted, running up the stairs after her. He was in a uniform that was indicative of the motel staff. "You can't just-!"

"I think you find that I can, and I did, Mr Muggle."

"Mr. Hartl-"

"_I don't care what your name is!"_

"It's alright." Severus interjected before his grandmother was sent to Azkaban for Crucio-ing all the Muggles in the building. "I know her."

Mrs. Prince shot a conquering glare back at the staff member behind her, who was gazing back in response to Severus's reply in a manner of extreme pity.

"I told you he was my grandson," she snapped haughtily at the disgruntled middle-aged man. "Can you not see the resemblance?"

The man gave an unamused shake of the head. "Ten minutes and I'm escorting you out," he informed her. "I would have gladly asked the gentleman to come down to talk to you but seeing as you were so…" the look and his face told everyone who could see it that he was itching to say '_intolerably difficult'_, but he settled for a professional: "… desperate to see him -"

"Yes, quite, now move along," Mrs. Prince said with her back to him, waving a bony hand away as if she were dismissing a particularly annoying fly away from her face. When the motel worker simply gazed at her in disbelief, she turned back to him. "_Move along!"_

The Muggle's resolve surprised Severus; he doubted many others would have held their ground when Serafina Prince was marginally ticked off. "If she is bothering you, sir, I can have her removed."

Before the younger man could answer, Mrs. Prince's teeth bared through her lips; she had her wand halfway out of the pocket of her dress before Severus grabbed her by the arm harshly.

"No-!"

"How dare you speak to me like that, you good-for-nothing piece of sludge!" she slipped her hand out of her grandson's grasp and twisted her body around to the now terrified looking Muggle on the landing. "_Stupefy!" _

Severus could only watch as the red flash of light hit him directly in the face - cloaking him in catalepsy. His head hit the bannister hard as he fell.

"That takes care of _that _little annoyance_,_" Mrs. Prince bit coldly.

"What do you think you're doing?" Severus demanded as quietly as he could in fear of attracting more Muggles to the scene. He pushed past Serafina and grasped the unconscious man underneath his armpits – he dragged the heavy body back towards his door, which he motioned her to open as he got there.

"_Alohomora," _she said lazily, pointing her slim wand at the lock.

Severus carelessly dropped the body behind the door as the three of them entered the room.

"Brandishing your wand around, picking fights... _calling Muggles 'Muggles' in front of their faces! _Honestly, between your dress sense and your attitude it's a wonder the whole _cosmos _isn't aware of our existence!" Severus barked as he leant harshly against the door, locking it back into place.

"Muggles can be Obliviated…" Mrs. Prince said casually.

"He's going to have to be when he regains consciousness! How have you remained out of the top security cells at Azkaban prison with the way you carry yourself in public?"

Mrs. Prince chuckled coldly. "Believe me, I do not come across all that many Muggles in my everyday societal duties."

"Oh, you don't say?"

She moved across the room as if she were walking on faecal matter. Her nose was turned up at every corner, every tile, and every piece of faded wallpaper of the room. He could only imagine what that face would look like if it ever entered Spinners End; this was a palace compared to it.

"How did you find me?" Severus asked.

"I have my ways," Mrs. Prince replied, swiping an elongated finger across the bedside table and glaring in revulsion at what it picked up. "Though frankly the fact that you picked a place like this…"

"You've never been to Derby, have you?"

Mrs. Prince turned to face him. "Oh, I have. I have even sat in your living room, I have drunk the tea from your cupboards – a Muggle brand of course."

There was something different about the way she looked at him… something in her eyes that was more open and vulnerable than before.

"Yes," she continued – obviously sensing an opening. "I did go there once. But it was made clear that I was never welcome again. I was turned away from the house and told never to return when all I wanted was to see my baby grandson, only a few days old."

Severus almost frowned, but decided that would give away far too much. "Doesn't feel all that good, I imagine. Being abandoned by your own family."

"Despite what you may think," Mrs. Prince said, almost tenderly. "I have never abandoned your mother. I need you to believe me on this matter."

It was Severus's turn to issue a cold laugh. "We tried this. I want no part in your lies."

"And you left without me giving you any incontestable proof."

Severus snorted. "You mean you have more incontestable proof than hiding your age and making up some cock and bull story about selling me to the Dark Lord via an Unbreakable Vow?"

Mrs. Prince appeared to think it best if she made herself comfortable, despite how much she looked like she'd rather sit on a pile of rotting troll carcases. She sat.

"Even I was a liar," she began, taking out yet another one of her endless supply of tar in stick form and lighting it. "Is that doubt really worth the possibility of sacrificing a life?"

The arrogance radiating from her was flabbergasting. After all this time, she had the most superlative egotism to assume that he actually _cared _about her in any form? If there was one regret that was now up there amongst his many other regrets, it was opening up that damn letter…

"Oh, you can trust me when I say that I could care less at present." Severus snapped, uneven teeth bearing in glorious gratification at the thought of hurting her impenetrable feelings… that was if she had any, which was highly, _highly_ questionable. He sidestepped away from the puff of smoke rolling toward him and opened up the pink coloured door, which he coupled with a sarcastic sweep of the hand. "It has been a joy knowing you."

And for once, Mrs. Prince's haughty smile vanished into a frown with the cigarette still placed her burgundy lips. She drew it out slowly and deliberately and paused with it between her fingers – which were surprisingly stain free in comparison with the stick itself, stained with lipstick.

"Oh," she replied with an air of what appeared to be genuine disbelief. "In that case, then, I believe I have nothing further to say to you."

Severus gave a gentle nod of consensus.

With a sigh and an indifferent flick of the cigarette onto the unconscious Muggle still out cold on the floor, Mrs. Prince raised herself effortlessly from the creaky old bed – raising his blood pressure even further when he recalled how frail and feeble she had acted just days before. She was about half a centimetre through the doorframe when she halted and turned back to look him square in the identical black eyes.

"I must say I am surprised however…"

"… You _are_?"

"Mmm," she murmured airily. "Not caring if your own mother lived or died. You almost remind me of myself at your age; not something I expected."

Severus opened his mouth for a biting retort, but her statement was so out of left field that he stood there gaping with it open for well over a long moment. "My…? But you gave the supposed Unbreakable Vow - she knows nothing about this."

"Merlin's beard boy, I thought you were intelligent!" she replied with a laugh. "You mean to say you thought I was talking about my own safety? As an intelligent woman myself, I would never fool myself into believing you had grown fond of me over the past year. Regardless of my own fate, do you honestly believe that the Dark Lord will let her live if you simply declined his invitation? She is the only leverage he has over you."

This was going far deeper than he ever imagined now. Of course he would come after her… how could he have been so stupid as to ignore that blaring fact?

"He will kill her anyway…" Severus whispered, trying not to let the ice cold drops of horror running down his spine show – else the old woman think that he was finally beginning to trust her words.

"If what you say is true – which I am still absolutely sure it isn't," he added. "The Dark Lord would never spare the life of a blood traitor. And he would _never_ spare the offspring of one."

Mrs. Prince simply continued to gaze over his face, her heavy lidded eyes sweeping up and down as if observing for cracks. Every nerve in Severus's body was aching for her to finally come out and say it was a lie, that all she wanted was for him to leave Spinners End and become the heir that she had always wanted…

"So if you are telling the truth," he continued slowly and deliberately. "Then you have sentenced us to death."

"No, my dear," she said almost softly. "I have given _myself _a life sentence."

"You!"

"… and…" Mrs. Prince seemed to be biting her tongue to stop herself but it was no use. "… and you - but you must understand that it was for my daughter! He took her from us!"

It was the first burst of apparent true emotion Severus had ever heard from his maternal grandmother.

"And you thought that the only way you could ever bring her back to our world was so sell her only son to the Dark Lord as bait?"

"He would offer you both lifelong protection, despite Eileen being a blood traitor; that is all I wanted! These are dark times, his army is building, she will not stay safe for long. The marriage record is in the Daily Prophet, for Merlin's sake!"

"And I am sure that you would not immediately object to him brutally assassinating my fath… Tobias," Severus queried. Calling that Muggle anything resembling a term of endearment stung him like a wasp on the tip of his tongue.

Before Mrs. Prince could affirm or badly deny, the Muggle motel owner who was previously still out cold on the floor stirred and gurgled something before he began to open his eyes.

"Wha… you… _you!_" he shouted as he caught sight of the tall cloaked woman towering above him. "You attacked me! I'm calling the police!"

As soon as he began to struggle to his feet (and it was a struggle with the gait he had seemingly achieved from decades of pies and Mars Bars) both Severus and Serafina moved towards him, wands raised. Each catching the others eye as if daring one another to make the first move.

This time, Severus got there first.

"_Obliviate!"_

The man's eyes glazed over and his head dropped back against the bed at a painful looking ninety-degree angle once more.

Mrs. Prince casually flicked her wand back into her robe pocket. "Can you blame me?" she continued as if nothing had ever happened. "Perhaps if you had a daughter whose non-magical, alcoholic husband beat her every chance he could get, you would not be so judgemental."

"I've sincerely heard enough now," Severus replied, tired of everything about this family, tired of everything at this stage. "Don't ever come after me again, else you hear the exact same reply I tell you now: I don't want anything to do with you and your scheming ever again."

"Please." The desperation in her words could not be anything but sincere; she would have had to possess no soul to speak of if it were not so. Before Severus could reiterate his very firmly made point he found his own ebony wand being tugged from his hand and presented to him; he looked up with genuine curiously.

"So you elect to be ejected from this place by force?"

"Use it!" Serafina spat. "Use it, you stupid boy! Why did I spend these weeks training you in Legilimency if you won't even use it to find out the truth? Or would you prefer to lead a blissfully ignorant life right up to point in which you let your own mother be murdered?"

It seemed so simple coming from her mouth. In some aspects she lived the most uncomplicated, straightforward life one could live… _just break into anyone's mind to uncover the truth. Just forcefully extract what you need in order to get what you want. _He could do it so easily.

"You taught me the practicalities of Legilimency," he agreed "but not the ethics. That, I learned myself."

"Who concerns themselves with _ethics _at a time like this?"

"Well, let me rephrase that: I have also come to learn that I cannot trust you as far as I can throw you."

"Memories cannot be so intricately altered," she counted, releasing her grasp on the door. "You would know if I had omitted anything; without Occlumency the minds of others are open books to you." She drew herself in, closer to him, the smell of tobacco on her breath made Severus's nose twitch.

"Why don't you see for yourself?" she said in barely a whisper in his ear. "Prove me wrong, or have closure. Either way, it is the only way that you will know the truth."

Severus looked deeper into her eyes, utilising all his training, consolidating it all at once; he could see a curtain being opened behind them… the truth lurking at the back of the room somewhere, just a few steps out of the spotlight.

"And the truth will out…" he whispered. And he nodded.

A step back and a single sweeping wave was all that was needed, and he was flying into the deep, dark pools of her subconscious.

"LEGILIMENS!"

_His mind pierced through the shadowy loch of her eyes and into a memory so clear that he could have simply walked into the adjacent room. _

"… _you haven't even told him, have you Eileen?"_

"_I don't care about magic anymore, mother. If I have to give up this whole world for him, I'll do it. I shall have nothing to tell him."_

"_Idiot girl! Do you not understand that modesty and humility have no place within womankind? We cannot AFFORD it Eileen! You are throwing everything I've worked for right out of the window by running off with this filthy Muggle!"_

"_DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT TOBIAS LIKE THAT!"_

"_I and your father can do whatever we like in our own house! He is filthy Muggle brute who took away the good sense of my only daughter, my young and strong Ravenclaw, and until you come to your senses you are no longer welcome here!"_

_The scene ripped at the seams. He was now standing in the living room of his house – the house that had never been a home. _

"_It is a fine name. A fine name for the fine man my grandson will become, no doubt."_

_Eileen felt the ache slightly lift from her… hearing her mother utter her sons name so gently as opposed to deciding it was in her power to change his name completely as her father-in-law did… it was soothing._

"_Speaking of Tobias - he will be home from the mill soon, I'll need to make him dinner. He's been working double shifts to keep us, you know… I'm afraid you've come at the wrong time if you wished to avoid seeing him."_

"_Well, I'd best be on my way then."_

_Severus managed to separate himself from the mind-meld that the spell had created just enough to stand back in awe at the sight of Mrs. Prince standing in Spinners End… it seemed utterly unnatural… morbid… to see her in the same place as his mother together for the first time. _

_A small cry echoed from upstairs… Severus jolted when he realised it must have been him. _

"_Thank you for stopping by, mother."_

_Serafina, ostensibly remembering herself, sniffed harshly. "Very well. Tell him I will be waiting – __**Severus**__ is always welcome in your father and mine's home." – she apparated without another word of protest. _

_Another shift. He was back at Prince Manor. _

_"Did you find him?" Atticus mumbled. _

_"Yes, my darling" she replied loudly, walking over to him and placing her hand around his shoulder. "He is powerful… the Muggle in him has certainly not dampened his powers; though his face is the splitting image of his fathers."_

_"He will make his way here, of that I have no doubt," Serafina continued. "It seems I was right about that Muggle. He has led our daughter completely away from magic. I dare say she barely holds any magic ability in her anymore… the Muggle has beaten it out of her. Did you hear, Atticus? Our only child has been beaten."_

_"She's a lost cause, always has been. What kind of witch allows herself to be hit? And by a Muggle."_

_"I am positive that her son can make her see the error of her ways, if I cannot. He will succeed where I have failed."_

_"What makes you so sure, Sera?" Atticus strained. "For all we know he could be as violent and brutish as her animal of a husband. And he is more of a danger to her. He is a wizard… a half-blood, yes, but still a wizard."_

_"He loves her, I can tell." She explained. "He refused my invitation because he felt he was betraying her."_

_The scene blacked out for a few seconds but slowly came back into view… when it did, Severus was standing in the exact same place in the exact same time. Mrs. Prince was gazing at a big leather chair as he wheelchair-bound husband looked on. _

_"We have to do this…" Mrs. Prince whispered as she stared. "I cannot fail her…"_

_This time the surrounds did change, and he was standing in a different room of Prince Manor. There appeared to be a corpse in the bed across from him, but as Severus investigated further – he realised it was only Atticus Prince, his century old grandfather. He looked down from where he stood, and saw Serafina Prince sitting at her dresser, dipping a brush into a pot of pale powder and twirling it around her cheeks. He watched her put on every piece of make-up she kept in a gargantuan crystal case in front of her in frustration… the downside to Legilimency was that one could not pick and choose which memories he or she observed – it was all the receivers. It all belonged to them. _

_Finally she did get up, and he apparated with her into a dark swamp, where a cloaked man waited. _

_"I am Serafina Prince, wife of Atticus and matriarch of the Prince family… as pure a wizarding dynasty as anyone will find."_

_The man followed her lead and threw back his own hood; through his ivory mask she could spot an unamused smirk._

_"Or so you would like to think, Mrs. Prince."_

_"I can assure you, masked man number five, I did not come here for a casual natter with an infantile adolescent. Especially one who is evidently more engrossed in his hair than creating intruder charms," Serafina bit, with a contemptuous glance over his well-groomed tresses. The blonde man's expression darkened to further heights._

_"Ah, yes… I see where your grandson got it from."_

_After what seemed like hours, they came to a muddy lake. _

_If Severus had been in his right mind, his heart would have completely frozen over. _

_"You found our guest in good health, I assume, Lucius?" the Dark Lord murmured from the other side of the small lake. _

_The Dark Lord…_

_"Yes, my Lord. She is very eager to explain why she hasn't fulfilled what you asked of her yet."_

_"My Lord, is it necessary to have such an inconsequential teenager here with us…? Especially one who twists truths in front of your very eyes." She asked of him._

_"__I'm__ the truth twister? Why don't you come join the Blacks, __your supposed family, __for dinner sometime and let them decide-"_

_"Lucius, your brash words displease your Master," Voldemort hissed, moving further towards them with each slow step. "Leave us. Wait for me at the meeting place… we have initiations to prepare for."_

_"Yes, my Master." And he was gone._

_"Time is running out for you, isn't it Serafina Prince?"_

_"It will get better, my Lord, I promise."_

_"And seeing that your promise is a life or death one for you, my friend, I am inclined to let you continue with your mission."_

_"Thank you. I won't fail you."_

_Voldemort gave an icy laugh. "If you do, you shan't be around to know, will you? … But your blood-traitor daughter will."_

_"I am taking a risk Serafina." He continued. "Trusting your words, your promises that your grandson will be of a great asset to your Lord Voldemort's cause. Why, part of me still believes that I should simply murder your petty little whore of a daughter at this very moment… have her worthless existence over and done with – it would be more of a charity than a crime, I believe."_

_"Does that upset you, Serafina?" Voldemort asked._

_"She is my daughter." Serafina replied._

_Voldemort's lip curled into a vicious sneer. "Good, good. Remember, you are now bound to me forever, servant! The tie of the Unbreakable Vow you made your Dark Lord will never break. Once Severus joins us, he must remain loyal. I am sure you know this."_

_"I am…"_

_"If he strays, if he runs from our world like his coward of a mother… Serafina, you will breathe your last."_

_"I know."_

_"And have no reservation, my valued friend – I __will__ slaughter them both after your own demise. I will butcher your daughter in the most painful of ways in front of her only son's eyes as his punishment; and then, after her body has begun to rot away and he can smell her death and his failure - I shall graciously relieve the traitor of his own futile life. The Princes shall be no more."_

_No… no… Two thoughts seemed to express this at one time. Severus realised the emotions he was feeling at present were also the very same ones pulsing through the cloaked woman in front of him, standing boldly upright and looking Lord Voldemort directly in the eye. _

_"Severus will not fail you."_

_"Yes. Let us hope so, for your sake. As a lasting token – remember this: if he refuses your requests, consider my… __terminal promises__ unchanged."_

_No…_

_"You already have my word, my Lord. My life, and the lives of my family rest on it."_

_"Very well. Get out of my sight; I have initiations from __willing__ followers to instigate. I shall be in contact in three months; if he is not ready and willing to become the Death Eater that you promise Lord Voldemort he will, consider the Vow broken. __Go.__"_

_And Serafina went._

_Before he witnessed the memory of her plummet to the floor as he was drawn back, there was the slightest, thinnest thread of vision of two hands entwined… one ivory, delicate and jeweled – the other translucent, waxy and distorted. _

"_Severus will be eternally mine…" came the hollow voice of the Dark Lord from behind Severus's ears; "… this is the promise that you, Serafina Euadne Prince, give to your Lord, to ensure your families interminable fortification and protection." _

"_It is, my Lord. I will ensure it." _

_Strings of gentle flame curled around them from the hands of the masked Bonder who caressed the tips of their fingers with the tips of their wands. _

The visions telescoped into blackness, leaving him kneeling at her feet in the physical world, grasping at the table leg to sustain his balance. He mouthed silent words.

"Severus…" Serafina started, reaching out to the person on the floor who seemed, now, so much more a lost boy than a man.

"Oh, God..." Severus croaked. When he looked up to see her grasping for him he took both hands and threw the inviting arm away. "Don't!"

He stumbled to his feet on his own; he could almost feel the cold steel of the chains she and these visions had entwined around him. Every shred of precious doubt he held head been ripped away… she had been right, she had been true through her deception, he had no choice… he had no choice.

"Severus, we can come through on top of this," Serafina comforted. "We can ensure that we all have the peaceful lives that we deserve – that you and your mother deserve. He will give us everything!"

Severus shuddered at her words, collapsing onto the bed.

"Peaceful indeed."

"At least we know he won't do it with our loyalty! Your household would have been targeted eventually – you cannot be so naive as to think that you all would get away unscathed. We are at war."

"Unquestionably," he said in a tone almost as hollow at that of the Dark Lord in Serafina's thoughts.

She allowed him a few uninterrupted moments of deep thought and heavy breathing before once again, as always, she interjected.

"Rest your mind now my grandson," she whispered soothingly "and come back home."

* * *

**Thank you for your reviews so far. **


	30. The Dog and the Dawn

**The Pureblood Prince 30**

**The Dog and the Dawn. **

Now that was a very strange dream. Sexy. But strange.

Aurora gazed at the ceiling, freshly blurry from her eye's nightly slumber. She rubbed at them with the base of her palms, feeling an instant coldness as the itchy cotton sheets travelled south around her midriff. Drawing her hands downward, she inspected her naked breasts with a most confused interest. As her attentiveness grew stronger, however, so thus did her senses. She slipped a hand under the covers and stroked her exposed belly, her thighs, and the dwelling between them, which, until last night, had been untouched by anyone else but herself… well, herself and a very casual experimentation with a Ravenclaw boy in fourth year, and another one in sixth year – but things that lasted less than two minutes hardly counted in Aurora's eyes.

She heard a shifting of bed springs and suddenly recalled that she did not end up making it home last night; she ended up in a room in the Leaky Cauldron. Shit, _shit! _Her brothers would _pitilessly massacre _her when she got back…

"Not enough for you, was it? Merlin, I'm only one man Sinistra." the equally naked being next to her enquired rather politely. Aurora could not lie: the sight of a topless, disheveled Sirius Black in the early morning light could probably never be enough.

She quickly drew her hands back out from between her legs and combed her fingers through what she could of her mixture of bed and sex hair – doubly chaotic. "I was just checking to see if everything was still there after the stunt you pulled. I'm only one woman, Black."

Sirius gave a spirited grin, which very much alleviated the slight awkwardness that had just been hanging above their heads. Aurora was almost tempted to kiss it – then quickly had to remind herself that it was not last night, and therefore it would not be as prudent to do such a thing, as they were not currently attacking each other against the bed head in very slightly inebriated states of mind.

Everything was too real in the morning, Aurora didn't like mornings: she needed the stars over her head. Bit ironic, really, when she shared her name with the Goddess of dawn. She gave a jolt when she felt a finger run down her spine. Too real, now.

"What now?" she asked in genuine interest, turning to face him, making sure that she kept herself covered with the sheets as she did so… even though he had recently seen all of her from top to bottom and then some – they had the stars above their heads _then. _Morning made everything all the more material and she was certainly not completely comfortable being in this state around him just yet. They had only just started talking to one another last night, for Merlin's sake.

"Well," Sirius started, melodiously stroking her shoulder in a not-entirely-uncomfortable way, "you could either grab all of your robes and run while I'm in the shower and never have to talk to or see me ever again, or you could just stay in bed and I'll serve you breakfast on bended knee… or you could join me in shower; actually, could we bump that one on the top of the list?"

"I knew Gryffindor's had absolutely noself-control, you're all animals." Aurora replied, the corner of her lip curling.

Sirius withdrew his physical attentions and leant back against the maltreated bedhead. "You have no idea," he said with a dashing smirk that made her insides twinge. "Besides, if you want to talk about self-control: we can turn our attentions to the person who hurled me onto this bed last night in the first place… I was the victim in this whole thing, you know."

"I'd watch that tongue… I can hurl you off it just as easily."

"Ah, I do so love my women vicious."

"You picked the right woman, then."

She swiped the sheets toward her and coiled it around her shoulders, leaving him even more unbearably naked. It took all of Aurora's willpower not to just sit there on the end of the bed ogling at his impeccably formed torso, with just enough chest hair to give him the air of picturesque masculinity without giving off the impression of being a Neanderthal lost in metropolis. She would not dare to think of her opinions of what was further south of his chest… she may have done something rather untoward if she did so. Sirius simply lay there in an impossibly casual manner for one who was so bare-naked, hands behind his neck and giving her the friendliest smile she had possibly ever seen. She looked away rather quickly and reached for a water jug on the dresser across from her side of the bed.

"Your head thumping into your skull as well?" Sirius queried from behind her.

"Oh - marginally," Aurora confirmed, pouring a full glass of the miracle liquid. When she finished she wiped the corner of her mouth and started to pour another one for him.

"Thanks," Sirius nodded as she handed him a goblet. "Now do you think you could either get dressed or come here and get under the covers with me? I'm a little… draughty over here."

An off-white sheet fluttered through the air and gracefully perched itself on the top of his head.

"Ah shit, I was so hoping it would have been the latter…"

"Provide me with options and that's what you get," Aurora teased, rummaging through the pile of various garments that had been hurled all over the floor. She picked up her bra and began to reattach it.

"No, no, no, no!" Sirius cried, crawling across the bed and grabbing her by the arm. "I take options back! There are no options anymore. I'm afraid I'm just going to have to rip that off you, Sinistra."

Aurora gave a yelp of protest as his warm hands wrapped around her waist and struggled to pull her down. After a few kicks and slaps she found herself back from whence she came: wrapped in his arms (not quite unlike how they ended up last night, only then he was a lot more sweatier and communicated in drawn-out moans and spasms as opposed to conversation).

"You are an amazing arse!" She sniggered, curling up against him and feeling tingles descending down the back of her neck as he stroked her back with the very ends of his fingers.

"You _love_ my amazing arse."

Aurora extended her head back to look him in the eyes. "That may be, though I'm still on the fence about who's attached to said amazing arse."

"Amazing Arse says he's quite alright."

"Amazing Arse has a head up it."

They spend a good minute giggling like simpletons. Aurora's brain was still spinning around inside her skull in its bid to comprehend just what was happening here… Sirius was holding her too intimately in his arms, nestling his head in the crevice of her shoulder too closely, doing everything he shouldn't be doing for this to be considered a one-off drunken night out kind of dealing. For a few moments she could not bring herself to say anything – she selfishly enjoyed rolling around cuddling with him as he planted small kisses around her ears, however hollow and meaningless they might have been – but when the time came and she found herself making eye contact with him, she felt that she should perhaps now remove herself from his presence. It had been fun. If that was all it was, then Aurora was happy with it. Merlin knows she had needed some _fun_.

"Got somewhere to be, I suppose" Sirius mused as he watched her dress for a few moments and then proceeded to do the same. "Some kind of Astronomer gathering discussing the nature of the universe and the meaning of life or some crap that confuses the hell out of everybody, no doubt."

"No, I don't. And I'm an aspiring physicist – not a philosopher; I think you'll find the two are rather polar. I cannot stand people who sit around and muse for a living." Aurora retorted.

"Ah hah, difference noted. Cold, statistical iron-heart versus esoteric drunkard." He said, grinning underneath his shirt as he pulled it over his head. "Both essentially attempting to find the answers to the same question, though, are they not?"

"Oh, I couldn't give a damn about that question! Life's too fun to query it."

She watched a dashing smile tug at his lips.

"Truer words were never spoken!" he laid back onto the bed and arched his back to make room to slip on his pants. Aurora began to look for things to do to prevent her from saying goodbye to this sight and walking out. Out of all the wizards in the world… Sirius Black… the man she thought was nothing but a pleasantly put-together mass of muscles and moron… the man who was now making her question all preconceptions she ever had about anyone…

As if harnessing the powers of Legilimency on her he quipped, "funny how these things turn out, eh?"

"Turn out?" Aurora asked.

"… well…" Sirius shrugged, looking mildly embarrassed at her question, which was admittedly said in a manner that was far too harsh. "I mean… this whole thing…" he swept his hand over the bedspread "… anyway, I'm keeping you from running majestically away into the morning mist. Can't have that. Can't miss out on my last opportunity to stare at your voluptuous behind without feeling like an ogling, chauvinistic scumbucket."

As if preventing her from replying in the affirmative, he had mechanically reached for the folded up Daily Prophet that had been left on the tray along with their water jug. He shook his head as his eyes flicked across the front page, which was littered with what looked like an artists impression of dark, hooded figures walking purposely through murky woodland.

"The Followers Too Many To Be Named: You Know Who's supporters to swell into the thousands…" he muttered the articles title sadly. Aurora's euphoria hit the floor with a thump. What a way to end things between them: reading out loud about how the entire Wizarding World was doomed… maybe it was a ruse to get her back into bed again, she half expected his next words to be '_Well, we're all going to be brutally murdered by the world's evilest man and his legions of embryonic psychopaths soon anyway, so why the hell not jump right back into my lap?' _

"We'll find some way to end this, you know." - were what his actual next words happened to be. "Though your charming oily little friend might just regret the day he was ever born if I ever find him in a dark alley."

A delicate hand clenched the top of the newspaper he held high above his head and ripped it right out of his hands, exposing a face that made him recoil and anticipate a minor bust-up.

"I don't want to hear about You Know Who, or any of his humdrum cronies with barely half a brain cell to share between them – oily little vomit-inducing gits included," Aurora snarled as she straddled him, her face an inch above his own… which had slowly illuminated in its surprise. "I refuse to give them the satisfaction of being the topic of _any _of our conversations."

"Then what…" Sirius breathed. "… What would you prefer to converse about?"

"I'm sitting here on your lap and currently unfastening the buttons of your trousers," Aurora replied. "I think that's a rather stupid question, don't you?"

"Yes, ma'am," was the answer she could barely make out as their lips traced one another's. In a matter of blurred moments splashed with clothing, flesh and hair, she had rendered him trouser-less and pinned against the bedhead once again; her tongue delicately savored the taste of his inner thighs for a purposeful and agonising stretch of time. From her occasional glance upward along the rough cotton sheets she discerned his beautiful face, and it was contorted with painful, aching frustration. Aurora smirked.

_How the tables have turned. You will soon find out who has the real power in this relationship. _

Sirius initiated small, tiny little gasps of suppliant whimpers as her wet lips journeyed closer and closer to what had been the epicentre of his young existence these past few years. His hips began bucking upward, the epicentre yearning to be touched, and to be touched enough to be allowed release.

"Nnngh…" was what the collection of sounds issuing forth from his mouth sounded like, in the most vague manner possible. "I thought," he sighed, "I thought you were leaving."

Aurora's head shot straight up; from her curtain of coffee-coated chocolate hair, Sirius caught a transitory peek of devilishly disdainful eyes.

"Well, no… but seeing as you are so damned committed to see the back of me then perhaps I will!" She pushed herself up from the bed violently and spun around preparatory to taking flight from him, before he grasped at her wrist mercilessly.

"No! You know I didn't mean that! Please, Rora!"

She glanced down to find him on all fours, naked, eyes begging for her return; Aurora stroked her lips and smirked.

"Sadistic viper," Sirius quipped under his breath. "I think I quite like you."

"Viper? Well, I don't know if I like _you _but I like the sound of that."

"Then Viper it is," he said with a sparkle in his eye. Aurora waited for him continue begging her to come back, but instead he continued to stare at her in a way that was almost quite truly demonstrative.

"Don't leave."

Well that wasn't exactly what she wanted to hear… if this was a challenge of wills, she was determined to win it.

"I'll leave you however I want to leave you," Aurora smiled. "It was fun, 'Amazing Arse', but I think we'll leave it there. You can finish on your own – I'm sure you're well experienced in that arena?"

"I didn't mean in that way… well, maybe I did a little bit but come on-" he gestured to her. "- You started it this morning. And you were sober this morning."

"Ding, ding, ding."

"Meet me for dinner tonight?"

"No_."_

"Lunch?"

"No. Oh, fine. Maybe."

"Good enough," he shrugged. "I'll give you a few hours to run away and then I'll come and hunt you down and drag you back here." He crawled towards her still-standing form and brought it down to sit next to him; he kissed her once on the cheek and then, leaving a space of ten seconds to ensure that she wouldn't throttle him, kissed her once again on the lips.

"Bye, then," he said tenderly.

Aurora brought their lips together again; oh… _oh…_it was too good.

"Say please," she demanded in less than a whisper as they parted once more. Sirius cocked his head.

"Wh-? Come again?" he queried.

"You will if you say please." Aurora retorted as fast as a lightning strike.

Sirius made a noise in between a laugh and a pant. "Oh, Merlin…" he said, exasperated, shaking his head in what she hoped was a physical expression of just how damned lucky he was feeling right now. "Please?"

"What are you, a mouse?" Aurora placed too warm hands upon his chest and pushed him onto the bed. She toppled over his front, spreading her legs all over his hips; her hands snaked down from his chest to the now rather rigid collection of supplements she found underneath her. She began to stroke them; just enough to provide a slither of welcomed contact, but not enough to quench.

"Uh, fuck, don't… don't…" he moaned. "… don't start this again. _Fuck_, Rora."

"I don't think those are quite the right words."

"Please!" he grunted. "Please! Please! Urgh!"

She sunk down in between him then, abandoning the façade. Their hips shifted together at a breakneck pace: fuck, it was ten thousand times better when she was sober. And when she was on top of him, in control of the whole production. She could get used to this.

From the way he attentively and delicately kissed her in an almost ironic manner (considering how brutal and fanatically heated their bonking was)… she certainly could get used to this. For the first time in a year, she felt so, _so _good.

The shadowy figures on the front page of the Daily Prophet continued to journey forth in the darkness and inflate to such astronomical numbers that the entire page clouded in pitch black nightfall, and the impending destruction continued to build in the world outside the room in which they lay… but today… today there was not one person alive who could care less.

* * *

**Thank you for the favourites and reviews thus far. **


	31. Submerged

_I haven't fallen in oblivion - just got a new job and engaged. ;) Life is very much back on track now, though. I hope you enjoy. _**  
**

**The Pureblood Prince 31**

**Submerged **

Toby Snape stood outside a very different variety of inn that very night. Quivering fingers manipulated the wad of cash that he had accumulated in his pocket over the past hellish week.

That bloody Parker mustn't have wanted his money all that badly if he chose to meet him inside the Lion's Head. Snape outside a pub, having not had a single drink in three days, and with thirty pounds painfully available at his fingertips, meant one thing: Parker was after limbs, not notes.

He brushed a soaked palm over an equally soaked forehead. He kept his back to the dusty window as much as he possibly could; if the very thought of what lay inside of that pub was enough to saturate the back of his shirt, he shuddered (quite literally) to think of what would happen were he to actually catch sight of the stuff. He rested his head against the window, closed his eyes and let out a jittery puff of air, trying in vain to quell the pounding head spins – the dark figure opposing him, lit only by the flickering amber light of her cigarette, completely overlooked.

"Yeh should probably sit down, love," she finally called out.

_You should probably shut your trap. _He thought.

He lowered his head and glared into the nightfall at her instead. The woman smiled through the rolled white butt still lingering on her lips. She was quite a pretty young thing with her blonde curls and pink cheeks, he supposed... though he wasn't sure. To any other man, she may have brought him to his knees; to him, she was just another woman that wasn't his wife – one without any alabaster skin and pitch-black hair to catch his eye. It was Toby's greatest weakness and greatest regret: that he was incapable of appreciating conventional women. Life would have been so much easier.

He chose to remain silent - which might have been a slight misstep as he heard the sound of four-inch heels rapidly cross the damp cobblestoned street and the flick of a fag lighter.

"Here, looks like you need it."

Toby clutched the cigarette from her offering hand and nodded a casual thanks, trying not look completely desperate as he took the first drag. He waited desperately for the smoky cure to wash away the edge, and almost screamed just as desperately when all it did was provide a mere alternative use for his money-fondling fingers.

"Ta," he mumbled, taking two or three quick puffs before he flicked it away and stamped it out over the wet pavement. He began to edge away toward the door of the pub when it was apparent that the woman had not yet finished her business.

"I'm Harriet," he heard her voice follow him, whispering into his ear. It was the first time he stopped and turned to look into her eyes, properly; he wondered if she was selling him something – hoovers, insurance, sex – he wasn't all that sure of the situation.

"Urhm… Toby." He cleared his throat and replied as swiftly as he could. _Where in all fuck was Parker? Bleeding little git. Did he want to clear this debt or not? _

The woman named Harriet looked him up and down and smiled. "Looks like yeh need a good heart-to-heart, Toby. Yeh can buy me a drink and tell me all about it."

The hairs on Tobias's neck went simultaneously static. It wasn't that he was not used to getting attention from ladies (ladies… what he really meant was the more spirited sort who hung out at all the locals, dancing on tabletops until dawn; the only real Lady he had ever caught the attention of was a certain Miss Prince back in the day), but the attention had certainly trickled to a complete stop as of recent years along with his rising temper, crushing disappointments and a physical appearance that was nothing more or less than tired… exhausted. It felt good to know he still had his looks; though despite this he intentionally swept a wedding ring clad finger over his ear, hoping the gleam would catch her keen eye.

She seemed to get the hint… he hoped. He did not get a chance to find how she'd take it as a dynamic smack collided into his backbone.

"Didn' think yeh'd show," came Parker's greasy voice from behind.

"Thought I'd rather yeh come to my home and burn it down with my pregnant wife inside like last time, eh?" Tobias countered underneath his breath. "Always knew yer brain was full of grass."

"I'm sorry; what I mean to say was I expected to find yeh lifeless in a pool of yer own piss… certainly not upright and capable of tryin' ter get up that tart's miniskirt."

Harriet looked on from the shadows of the streetlamp with a highly tickled smirk on her face as she observed the two men sizing one other up. Toby ended up being the first to make a shove at other… though the other anticipated he might have done as much, and moved aside to prevent the attack.

"_Can_ we get this over with? Believe it or not I don' really want to spend my Saturday nights with a drug dealing loan shark _or _that miniskirt." Toby spat.

Parker motioned toward the door of the pub. Tobias bit the inside of his mouth hard enough to foster ensuing scar tissue, but he did not one word of verbal protest: Parker was looking for that. He didn't even whimper when he was practically dragged right in front of the bar – right in front of the glimmering golden, amber and ocher bottles and pints that he so dearly needed… _needed._ He wiped away the rolling beads of sweat that were dripping from his forehead and curving into the nape of his neck.

"Yeh alright, Snape?" Parker queried with a glint in his eye.

"Can we sit somewhere a tad quieter?" Tobias cracked under his breath. "I don't want the entire _continent _knowing about this if we can help it."

He wanted to get away, as far away from this as possible. He looked around for a booth in the direction of the exit.

"All yeh you got ter do is shove the brass in me hand and I'll be on my way," Parker said. "No need to make a song n' dance 'bout it... pint of lager, please…" he instructed Greg the barman who was eyeing them with familiar distrust.

"Usual, Toby?" Greg prompted with a thin sigh; he had already half-poured the bottle of vodka into a shot glass before he could even speak. Toby held out his palm.

"No, no. Nought fer me."

"W-what?"

"Don't be silly Tobe," Parker interjected. "S'one's on me. Double anything?"

Tobias's knee gave a slight jerk. His pounding organs screamed yes… his dignity whispered no. "I'll… I'll be right, ta. Gotta go home soon."

Parker's eyebrow arched rather high, in what only could be construed as the look of someone who was very resentfully impressed. "Just the larger then."

As soon as Greg turned his back to them, the notes had scrunched themselves into Parker's left hand.

"Done. I'm going."

Tobias was half way across his Kingdom when he heard the inevitable shout of protest.

"Eh, eh, eh!"

He looked back to see the gold toothed man about two feet behind him, shaking his head with a bemused smirk.

"I think yeh missed about seventy pounds there, this'll barely get me a bus home."

"I _told _you!" Tobias mouthed under his breath but his face now burning red. _"I don't have a hundred pounds! _I don't have _five _pounds! I don't have ten fucking _pence! _You'll get your fucking brass no matter _where _you try to make me lose it, because I _won't _lose it. I'll see you next week behind the Lion's, a'right?"

"Perhaps. I might just see yeh sooner than that, Snape, just yeh see if I don't."

"Yeh'll _get_ your seventy, yeh good-for-nought son of a bitch," Toby gave Parker as much of a violent shove that he could muster in his state (surprisingly the much more violent looking of the two did not retaliate to this), and stumbled against a table on his way out catch some cherished air. He did not notice the smirk radiating from the face of the man he left behind… even if he did he was in no state to comprehend its significance.

Three days without oxygen would leave no human survivors… three days without a drink left a grossly dependent alcoholic in a rather similar situation. As soon as he pushed upon the doors of the pub, Tobias came face to face with the muddy, wet pavement; if there had been any trace of booze trickling down into the gutter amongst the grim and the dirt he would have placed his entire tongue upon it and soaked it in – but it was merely water. Water was not so vital to his survival.

He began to stable himself, placing his hands upon a window of the next door shop and pushed himself up, his heart still pounding in his throat. He did not know quite how he got there but one second the world was a haze and the next he was standing under the bright, unforgiving lights of the local off-license the next block down. He grabbed the first three bottles of liquor his shaking hands could reach and threw them upon the counter in front of the terrified looking young shop clerk.

He searched through the very same pocket in which he had pulled out Parker's payments and handed twenty pounds to the clerk. He clutched the clinking bottles of liquor close to his chest and left without a thought.

Getting far enough away from any lights and voices, Toby half-ran into an empty alleyway and ripped off the lid of the first bottle… it was a completely clear liquid: vodka. Not that Toby had given a rat's arse about what he drank for years now.

"You'll do," he whispered desperately to himself as he took the first swig of the stuff. The moan that escaped from his wet lips as the burning hot liquor seeped into his oesophagus was entirely that of a man on the brink of orgasm. He felt his heart return to its steady lub-dub and the panicked heat escape from his skin and evaporate into the air - as if someone was caressing every inch of his dry blistering body with icy cold fingers. He took the first bottle in a matter of minutes with no thought but life or death… the second bottle was much harder to stomach as his body returned to its usual functioning. That was when the shame hit him. Bang on queue, as usual.

_Another twenty pounds to steal, to keep her safe. Twenty pounds that you could have given __**him**__, to leave you alone, to stop making you sick with worry that some day he will come back and hurt her again. I needed it to live. I would have died tonight without that drink. Perhaps… but you bought three drinks. I'll need it to live again tomorrow, and the next day. I'll need it every second of my life to be able to look Eileen in the face. Eileen... _

Somehow the sweet familiarity of drunkenness made him see the world far more clear. He suddenly understood what Parker must've been smirking about, what he must've been talking about when he said that he'd see him sooner.

_I've sentenced her to death._

The third bottle smashed upon the cobblestones, giving the rats something to celebrate over, as he staggered in the direction of Spinners End.


	32. Ignorance is Unity

_Trigger warnings: Physical and sexual violence. _

**The Pureblood Prince**

**Chapter 32 – Ignorance is Unity**

Eileen heaved a solemn sigh as she slipped off her blister-causing heels and laddered stockings and fell back upon her marital bed, cup of tea in hand, after a particularly rotten and busy shift. The springs screamed their customary prong of protest as she did so, and immersed herself in the silence, the complete uninterrupted silence, that surrounded her. It was too forlorn. She needed to hear something other than her own thoughts.

She took a last swig of the wretched vaguely-tea-flavoured mug of dirt and turned over onto her stomach, where she began sorting through the piles of this week's overdue bills… she was infinitely glad that she had not read the bottom of the electricity bill (glaring up at her in all its malicious, red-inked glory) with a draught of stagnant tea in her mouth – it would have bled straight into her bronchioles and suffocated her. _How _many pounds? How was that even possible? She was lying here in the dark with nothing but the streetlights to aid her vision… they all sat in the dark ninety percent of the time. They had no central heating. Was brewing the tea she had just consumed behind it? Eileen shut her throbbing eyes to the figure and let the palms of her hands rest upon them; she did not want to see any of the others… this one alone was her entire weeks pay.

The rest of the bills flew into the air and tumbled upon the carpet as Eileen flicked up the blankets and ducked underneath it; the covers molded against her overwrought body like a cotton cast. It was one of those idiosyncrasies she would forever carry over from childhood into adulthood – feeling completely untouchable underneath this fortress of suffocating, muggy darkness. No repossession man or bellowing father running up the stairs to strike her for non-compliance or otherwise could drag her out of this steel fortress. She could wither away and die here if she pleased – no one had the authority to take that choice away from her. Eileen scrunched her already shut eyes… _those _thoughts again… they were much harder to get rid of now her child was no longer a child, but a young man who didn't need her to be strong, a _mother,_ anymore. There suddenly seemed to be a lot less to fight for.

Please be good tonight, Toby.

She could do with a warm bath, but she feared a single clockwise turn of the rusted facet would cost them the house. Eileen thought the safest thing to do was to fall asleep instead.

The shadowed man had already reached the third step outside the front door when she awoke from the all-too-familiar nightmare of… him. Not of the man named Black, but of Tom Riddle – He Who Must Not Be Named as the rest of the world knew him. She knew it was Tom from his eyes; though the rest of him was completely unrecognisable… a grotesque cross between a serpent and a raven, a long slithering ribbon with feathers, a beak and fangs that dripped scarlet with blood. She was trapped in a box made entirely of steel bars as the ravensnake slowly made its way toward her, all she could do was wait and see what it would do as it slithered through the bars and twisted itself around her bare legs, the feathers tickled her naked torso as it climbed methodically toward and around her neck – cutting off all protest, rendering her immobile and locked.

"_You've served your purpose, girl." _- was the last utterance she caught before the fangs pierced her artery and her brain jerked her back into welcomed reality. She gasped and threw the blanket halfway off the bed, grasping frantically at the nape of her neck.

The knock at the door was the final straw in setting each and every one of her nerves on fire. She jumped so harshly that she felt her diaphragm thump against the barrel of her lungs. If Toby had forgotten how to put the key in the lock again then he could bloody well stay out there and freeze!

But when she opened the door, just enough to see the face of the caller, the face looking back at her was more unwelcome even than her spouse.

"Piss off," she spat viciously.

"Always such a pleasure, Mistress Snape." Parker replied with a toothy, golden grin.

"That was your one and only warning," she cautioned. "Leave this house."

"Oh don' worry, pet. This won' be like last time. I'm not stayin' fer tea."

"Damn right you're not."

The feeble door creaked and cracked in protest as two pairs of hands pressed with equal potency upon both sides of the timber. Eileen bared her teeth, desperately craving to hear a _click, something _to indicate that she had least a few seconds to run into the kitchen.

She finally received her opportune moment when Parker started talking to her – draining some of his concentration away from his hands.

"Listen! I only wanna talk to yeh about yer good-fer-nothin' husband! That's all I wanna-!"

The door gave its sweet welcomed click, and she ran. He, of course, followed… however when he did reach her he was met with the dulled blade of a knife.

"_GET OUT_, or I will _make _you!" Eileen shrieked. Parker immediately threw up his hands and begun to back away, led by her shaking hand. What she wouldn't give for her wand. She would cut off her left arm with this very knife for it. There had to be something she could do wandlessly; she never thought that she had been powerful enough for magic like that in the past until she did it to Tobias… she surely could do it again.

She started making sudden movements, like a lioness who just begun to pounce upon her pray but changed her mind at the very last minute. Parker did not soar back through the air as Toby had done, but she would be lying if she had said her attempts of warding him off had been unsuccessful. At the very least her abrupt erratic behavior startled him so much that, very briefly, he momentarily lost all concentration. In that one split second, Eileen seized her moment. She fought not as a witch but as a Muggle woman. The blade sliced its away across sweaty, unshaven flesh.

"_Argh_! Yeh fuckin' bitch!"

Parker howled in pain and stumbled back a few paces, clutching his oozing cheek.

"I said get out!"

"Got a bit more fight in yeh since last time, eh!"

The sight of a fully grown man grappling his way toward her stirred something within her… he could very well have been storming toward to wrench the knife out of her hand (although Parker did not do himself any favours in his defense by breaking down Eileen's door and swearing at the top of his lungs… not the world's smartest man), but she wasn't going to lay down and take that risk.

"Well you see I couldn't move as well when I was thirty weeks pregnant, and my bedroom was engulfed with flames!"Eileen screamed as she swung the knife back and forth like a madwoman. She had barely gotten the words out of her mouth when he lunged at her, tackling her to the ground. _He _was contending for the weapon in her hand. _She_ thought otherwise. So did her husband when he stumbled up to the front door – saw it ripped from its hinges - and had dashed into the kitchen in a wild panic, bellowing for her.

"EILEEN!"

He must have been sober with the kind of precision in which his boot came into contact with the very same cheek that she had bloodied. Parker's head whipped backward so aggressively that Eileen was sure she heard his spinal cord pop… oh well. Her nourishing conjecture was cut short as Parker rose up, as if from the dead, and swung at Tobias. From behind the blade Eileen saw a cascade of droplets – clear and scarlet – spray into the air behind his head; as he turned and threw Parker into the bookshelf, she made her move. As Tobias kept the equivalently red man pinned against _Tamburlaine the Great _and _Traité Élémentaire de Chimie, _Eileen skirted around her spouse and drove the tip of what she was now visualising to be a switchblade or stiletto into the nape of his carotid. She willed him, _willed _him, to make an impulsive jolt just so she could argue that he was the one who moved and killed himself. Unfortunately he was frozen in paralyzed fear – widened pupils darting from man to woman, and back again, and back again.

"Your deafness could be your demise," Eileen warned with far narrower, blacker, eyes. "_Get. Out."_

"Yeh heard her," Toby reiterated, his elbow taking care of Parker's airway as his wife dominated the vessels.

"She…" Parker croaked, "… Eileen hasn' even heard wha' I… gotta say."

"She don't wan't to!" Tobias blasted. "I think she made that perfectly clear, don't yeh?"

"Fine… I'll say it, _again. _I want my _brass, _Snape_. _Nex' time… I… I won' be so gentle with her."

This time Parker was thrown into the ground. So hard that Eileen expected him to tumble into hell. Tobias started laying blows that she had never seen before… Parker had always been infinitely stronger than Toby, but at this moment he could very well have been a paper cup being pummeled by a stamping press. Usually, Eileen would have been screaming at him to stop – wrenching him off and snapping back into a reality where words were infinitely more hurtful than violence – but she did not think that words worked on such primitive beings as Parker. She wanted Tobias to punch him into oblivion for coming into her house, her sanctuary, and laying his revolting hands upon her. _Now it's time for hands to be lain upon you, beast. _

"Fucking, worthless -! Least it's a step up from trying to burn a pregnant woman to death!"

"I'll drive this into your spine!" Eileen interjected – and with full intention. She crawled onto the floor next to Toby where they both towered above him. "All you wanted was money? You would have beat me… raped me… just for a few fucking quid? Get up."

Toby grabbed him by the neck that she was threatening; he began pulling him out toward the door with Eileen in tow.

"I ain't the thief here, Misses," Parker continued through the shoves and swearing and threats of murder. "Yeh migh' wanna check the facts with yer trus'worthy soul-mate there before yeh start accusing me of robbin'."

_What?_

"Yer lucky I'm not calling the bobbies after yeh!" Toby roared as he threw Parker against the broken doorframe.

"S'if yeh, Toby Snape, would ever willingly attract the attention of any bobby. They'd lock yeh right up before they took a look at me. Wonder what lass's purse yeh shoved yer hand in to whip out that thirty quid fer me-"

"What are you talking about?" Eileen barked before she realised by asking she would be keeping him here longer. "Don't answer that," she added. "Just go – and we _will _call the Mugg – the police – if you EVER come back here, do you hear me?"

"Though by the smell of it I'd say yeh'd nicked the hundred yeh owe and drank the rest away. Got yeh priorities right ain't yeh, Snape?"

"_Are you deaf! Get the hell out of my house, you slimy little cretin!" _Eileen threw the knife behind her left hip preparatory to taking another swipe and thanked the stars that Toby had enough insight to leap cleanly out of her way as she swung Parker clear from the entrance. He tumbled onto the pavement before them and tripped over the gutter; a mildly intrigued tabby cat glared at him from its perch on the bricked fence.

"Don' worry, Snape! I'll come back ter jog yer and yer family's memories until yer North England's most wanted man!"

Eileen held up her hand and gave a small wave with her ring and pinky fingers and calmly attempted to shut the inoperative door behind her. That would definitely need to be fixed tonight. She turned to find her husband absent from the hallway; she sunk to her knees and leant against the support of the wall for a while. She didn't know what to think, or to say, she could not be bothered trying to figure it all out.

She rubbed her sore throat and crawled back into the living room, where she found Toby lying in the middle of the floor – gazing up at the ceiling, shaking his head as if he was arguing with himself.

"Tobias."

That was all she wanted to say. He stopped thinking and turned his head to look at her, blood and sweat began to pour down his lips and into the nape of his neck as he shifted.

"I'm…" something perched on the edge of his lips, she could tell, but he kept it locked in. "Come here…" he whispered in exasperation.

Eileen didn't know if she would hold him or hit him when she finished slinking toward him. She didn't end up doing either. She flopped down next to him on the floor and stared into his eyes.

"Come here," he repeated and drew her into his arms. She didn't resist, but that wasn't all to do with her love for him, she was also far too tired to move anymore. Eileen closed her eyes and used his chest as a rather uncomfortable pillow as he stroked her back and kissed her hair. The sheer enragement at an all-too-familiar foe and the euphoria at overcoming him, together, as a proper partnership, asphyxiated any reasoning and logical thought and need for discussion. They began stripping off each other's clothes until they were nothing but skin and blood, their bodies shifted together with the same unison they had shown earlier. Watching Tobias in blissful agony above her, his skin tinted pink and blood dripping methodically from his lip onto her delicate breasts, filled her with such disconcerting erotic ecstasy that it didn't take him long to hurtle her over the edge.

If only she had the power of Legilimency - to see that her husband was rapturous over an entirely different reason all together… that it was his blood and not hers he was covered in. That he was sure that he would have found her dead. That it would have been his fault.

No. She wouldn't have been _quite _as accommodating.


	33. Escapism

******Escapism**

He had grudgingly accepted witchcraft in the beginning… even if it was due to a distorted belief that all of his problems and money woes would disappear with a wave of his wife's wand, that and the pleasure enhancing potions. There was also the added complication of his interminable love for her, as much as he hated it with every fibre.

She had grudgingly accepted the drinking in the beginning - because she thought that by the time the baby was born, he would get better. Fatherhood would make him better.

"_Come on, Ei" Toby prompted loudly from downstairs. "What yeh doing up there? The Christmas party's probably been done and dusted by now!"_

"_Trying to find something that won't make look like a moose," Eileen bit back from in front of the wardrobe of their bedroom. _

"_I'm afraid that's the card you were dealt, love."_

_Eileen dropped the long black cardigan she was holding in her hands and shuffled to the landing as fast as her legs could carry her. _

"_Say that again and I'll have your testicles for earrings."_

_But she was met with an upturned grin from the bannister down below. _

"_Joking."_

_Eileen raised her eyebrow, though he could not see it in the darkness. "Hrm…" she groaned, but her mood was brightened all the less as she went back into the bedroom to throw the cardigan on. He was in a curiously good mood… he was the man she loved when he was on the wagon. _

_She knotted the tie around her swollen belly and took one last look in the mirror… Well, it was probably the best she could achieve. _

"_Yeh look nice," he said when she arrived at the door. She knew she had never, in her entire life, looked 'nice' – not conventionally 'nice' by any means. But for some reason Toby loved that. She supposed it was because she was the only thing in his life that was incomparable to what the other lads had. "Now come on."_

_Before they both reached the front step of the door Eileen grasped at his wrist. _

"_Just remember your promise," she warned perilously. _

_Tobias gave her a look, as if he were about to give her a once over for reminding him about the drink… but he rearranged his face into something of a long-suffering smile. _

"_Just one? It's Christmas."_

_Eileen pulled back toward the house, "you promised!"_

"_Argh. Ok, ok, none, none."_

"_And we're going just to pop in, remember," Eileen reminded him. "We've got to drive to your brothers tomorrow for lunch."_

"_I know that," he snapped. "I do remember these things occasionally."_

"_No drinking there either – remember."_

"_I know. I promised." He replied, rolling his eyes as he turned away. _

_If he knew what was good for him – and he would do later that night if he returned home sober – he would damn well stick to that promise. _

_The little one stirred within her and she rubbed her belly to calm both infant and herself. She didn't know how much further stress she could handle without going right into labour… he'd better be good to her these last few weeks or it'd be their child's life on his hands. _

_Without noticing her discomposure, Tobias pulled her away from the door. They walked down the backstreets toward to the factory; arms subconsciously wrapped around each other despite both of their darkening moods, and said nothing. _

_The Christmas party was well and truly underway when the Snapes entered the semi-full hall. Tobias kissed his wife's forehead quickly and jogged off to join his co-workers; he clearly expected her to follow suit and join all of the wives who were congregating in another corner of the hall… he clearly was delusional if that was the case. Eileen stood and watched him like a hippogriff for a while, waiting for one of his mates to offer him something; every nerve stood rigid, waiting, when one of them held a bottle lager out. She almost had to stand on her tiptoes as she watched the exchange. She breathed a silent sigh of relief when she saw him grasp at it, but then slowly shake his head. She beamed. Maybe it would be a good Christmas. _

_Eileen turned to see all of the wives and girlfriends whispering behind their hands and shooting bemused gazes at her. Subtlety was not their forte. She hated__these work events Tobias dragged her to; most of the time she stayed home, and by the looks of these women's faces and their sniggering voices she felt that that had been a wise decision. She waddled over to the fruit punch bowl, ladled a few scoops into a paper cup and stood in a corner. The women soon began to lose interest in sneering at her (staring them down didn't hurt) and went back to their wine and bitchy conversations. Eileen felt her back twinge and decided, seeing that no body was about to give up their seats to such an outsider despite how visibly pregnant they were, that she would lean up against the wall and count the minutes until they could go home. _

_It wasn't long before she took a glance over at the men's table again. This time Tobias was nowhere to be found. Hardly any of the men stood where they previously abided. She looked over to the women's table, wondering, vaguely, if there was another wife or girlfriend looking as anxious as she was… no… all of them were laughing, chattering, prattling, babbling on about topics she knew were of the most mundane subject matter. Not one of them felt that pitting pool of disappointment in their bellies. Eileen supposed Muggles might have been affected differently by alcohol – no one around here really seemed to mind how much it encumbered their lives. _

_She was halfway toward the corridor, preparatory to scurrying down the stairs and confirming everything she already knew, but then she remembered that it was Christmas. She didn't want to be screaming and fighting and flinging plates at him while carols could be heard in the street. _

_And it wasn't just 'them' anymore. _

_What was it worth? _

_When Tobias came back stinking of the stuff half an hour later, and smiled at her, kissed her on the cheek and rubbed her distended belly, all she could do was smile sadly and kiss him back - that lying, deceitful, addicted son of a bitch._

"_Shall we call it a night?"_

_Eileen bit her lip. _

"_Yes," she answered. "I think so."_

* * *

The dark grey skies had dominated most of London that night. The teenage boy sat on his bed with his arms crossed over the windowpane, his chin nuzzled in between the crevice of his inner elbow. He had been staring at the same formidable cloud for the past ten minutes… it could almost be the Dark Mark.

He shuddered. That could be him out there in a couple of years. He forced himself to believe that it had just been a shudder of elation.

Two black shadows strutted their way across the paved street in front of him. He knew the gait of one of those shadows. It was the same shadow that made its way through the black gate and up the front stairs… the second being did not follow him.

"Kreacher," he called.

A sound like a whip-crack emanated from the corner of the bedroom. The boy turned upon his bed to see his family's ever-faithful House Elf bowing before him.

"Master Regulus," the Elf crooned with affection. "I supposed you would be calling Kreacher."

"You've noticed," Regulus replied as a statement more than an enquiry.

"Kreacher has."

Regulus nodded and contemplated his next move. He did not have time to follow this contemplation through, however, as he heard the front door of Number 12 slam shut.

"What would Master have Kreacher do?" the Elf asked with a delicate spark in his eye.

Regulus surveyed his servant, and his friend. Usually he would have commanded something marginally brutal and stood on the top of the stairs and watched the commotion. But he was far too incensed to be a bystander… after everything his brother had put his family through.

"Stay here," Regulus commanded as he moved onto the landing. He could not see Kreacher reach out for him behind his back as the door closed shut.

Sirius was halfway up the staircase when his younger brother swung around the bannister, wand at the ready. He flicked it speedily, calling upon all his inner strength.

Sirius thrust his hand into his repugnant Muggle jeans pocket, but the wand was merely a quarter of the way out when Regulus swooped him off his feet and left him dangling, as if the hem of his trousers had been hooked on the end of a fishing line, in the air above him. Regulus felt an extraordinary rush of exhilaration and pride… he had just managed his first non-verbal spell.

"See you still can't fight like a man!" Sirius bellowed, his coat barely hanging onto his elbows. He flung an idle punch through the air as if to hammer his point home.

"See you still have the mentality of a child," Regulus returned. He held out his hand for his brother's wand and waited patiently for him to hand it over. When that action did not come into fruition, he raised an eyebrow and added: "do you think I'm going to let you down when you're pointing that at me?"

"I can let myself down! And when I do Regulus-!"

Regulus wasn't all that sure if Sirius knew the counter-curse to the Levicorpus spell. He wanted a good gloat, but he also wanted to gloat in one piece. When Sirius threw a spinning red curse at him, he seized his golden opportunity and disarmed him. The chocolate coloured wand pranged its nimble way down four or five stairs, all the while being watched, hopelessly, by Sirius, who had his head tilted back so far that his forehead could almost have touched his vertebrae.

Sirius heaved a mighty sigh.

"Well don't leave me hanging, Reg."

"Don't call me that!" Regulus said – his wand shaking in his fist. "You relinquished any familiar usage of my name when you relinquished this family! What are you doing here?"

"For a big old tearful reunion with my dear old papa and mama; what do you _think _I'm doing here, you twit? I've left some stuff here. Stuff I own and stuff I want back. Believe me, I wouldn't be here unless I really fucking needed it – alright?"

"I don't know how you can have the gall to ever show your face in his house again."

"Well, thanks for keeping me even longer. Appreciate that."

Regulus bit his lip and pondered if he should throw a far more vicious curse at his brother. His breathing quickened in his uncertainty. He would have decided to go through with it if Sirius hadn't looked him square in the eye… he couldn't look at them without gazing at a seven year old.

_Liberacorpus._

It was easier to just let him fall down the stairs. He fell in a heap, a heap that then clung to itself and groaned.

"Nice…" Sirius wheezed. "It's like I never left."

"I'll finish the job if you don't leave by the time mother gets back."

It was the first time his older brother looked genuinely anxious. "What?" he queried. "She's not here?"

"She is on a social call."

"When's she coming back?"

Regulus could not help but notice that Sirius's eyes kept darting to the door. After a few moments he caught on.

"She'll be back soon, along with father," Regulus responded with a smirk. "Why? Worried about your friend outside?"

"No!' Sirius barked, pushing himself up from the mahogany floorboards and brushing off dust from his coat. "Just worried for you. This is the longest you've gone stripped of the chance to hump that old bag's leg - I'm surprised you haven't collapsed in a gibbering mess yet."

The laugh that ensued pushed Regulus's bubbling fury over the edge of the pot; this time a curse did fly towards Sirius's head, missing him by only inches, and instead crashing down upon a completely innocent statue of a bare-breasted witch holding a bloodied wand.

Sirius looked back at the rubble and gave another hearty chuckle before pushing his brother into the wall and hastily skipping past him up the stairs. "Ooooh, your lover – sorry, I mean mother – isn't going to be happy with _you_!"

"Mrgh!" Regulus willed his wand to transform into a particularly barbed javelin so that he could stab the traitorous bastard right into his neck… he screamed instead: "OUR MOTHER! SHE'S OUR MOTHER!"

How Sirius could still laugh at him after what he had done made Regulus's insides bleed. He heard his footsteps make their familiar way to his old bedroom and yelled out, after him: "Kreacher! I've changed my mind! Do what you want with him!_"_

The sounds of an unnervingly gleeful cackle and a scattering of clawed feet, followed by a: "Don't even think about it, you scaly pintsized ogre!" reverberated from the upstairs landing. Regulus could have followed and continued the forlorn war of endless words, sprinkled here and there with physical violence, until the Hippogriffs came home – but he knew nothing would make Sirius come to senses and end the persistent cloud that he had brought upon their family since his departure.

No. No point.

But… but… he could use the friend outside as bait. He knew how much _friends _meant to Sirius, over his own family.

By the time Sirius had managed to tie Kreacher to one of the posts of his bed and gather his belongings to take back to James's in his Hogwarts portmanteau, Regulus was waiting for him at the door. He could not even speak as his brother side-skipped down the staircase with his wand raised – anticipating a brotherly scuffle.

Instead – the door was held open for him.

"Huh. A show of courtesy from my flesh and blood…" Sirius muttered as he dragged the suitcase into the forbidding ebony frame – the entrance and exit to everything one loathed, and consequently inspired the other to guard. "First time for everything. Thought I suppose opening the door for me isn't all _that _of a new experience."

"I can't believe you." Regulus whispered in a slow, incredulous manner. "I have no idea whether you are trying to buy yourself into this family again – but _that –_" he shoved a finger toward to the door, "- is not going to work."

"What? What are you going on about now?"

"If you come back here, I'll kill you."

"Haha! Yeah, good one!" Sirius roared. "You couldn't kill a cockroach if you found it in bed with mum! HUH-"

Sirius had lurched himself forward, obviously intent on making Regulus flinch and thus make his point. But instead of a cowering, baulking younger brother, who Sirius expected to mimic its ten-year-old self, he was struck on the face with a wet lump of spit.

At first Sirius gave a tiny little laugh – confused at what had just happened. As he brought his hand up to wipe off the sticky substance, however, his face dropped to the floor. He gazed at his hand before blowing a sharp shot of air from his nostrils; he looked up into the face of the perpetrator. There was something in his eyes that had changed… Regulus had never seen them that way before.

"You know…" Sirius whispered, sounding deeply hurt for the first time in his entire life. "I used to think the phrase 'I have no brother' was so vomit-inducingly cliché…"

Regulus merely continued to watch and to pant away his fury.

"But now I can actually say it without feeling like a melodramatic twit," Sirius continued. "I've hated the ground you walk on for a long time, but today is the day you stop existing." He picked up his belongings and swung them over his back. "Good luck at attempting to conceal the real you to Voldemort."

Regulus did recoil this time; as much as he tried to hide it, Sirius had caught it.

"Yeah," he nodded. "You're going to need it."

"Go back to your gang of nitwits and your_ hussy_," Regulus jolted his head to the outside world. "We don't want you anyway."

Sirius nodded. Acquiescent. He left without an insult or a goodbye. His estranged brother watched on, his head craning to see what Sirius would do when he reached what seemed like his new piece of skirt.

But Sirius disappeared beyond their belladonna shrub, and he was forced to run upstairs and peer through the same window that he was watching the rain through only fifteen minutes earlier.

* * *

"You said five minutes. I'm more lake than woman." Aurora quipped from underneath her umbrella as Sirius approached her. She shot the five or so young Muggle boys that had gathered across the street to gape and point at her an unamused glower.

"You should stop wearing that cloak places – they'll give you a hallowed out pumpkin and start taking you door-knocking for sweets."

"Oh no, this is too much fun." Aurora swept a hand, concealing her wand, palm down, over a pool of water bottlenecking at the gutter; a spray of the stuff cannonballed toward the youngsters, drenching them from head to toe. Instead of shrieking and scurrying away, or going on the offensive and attempting to throw various pieces of rubbish at her, they all began hooting in pronounced amusement and started kicking the water at their end toward the couple. Aurora shot a sly smirk at them.

"Have you finished?" Sirius enquired.

"… yes. Done." Aurora flicked her wand back into her cloak pocket and waved goodbye to the boys. Sirius threw his bag over his shoulder, and with his other arm entwined it around hers. They walked together.

After a few minutes, Aurora sensed that there was, perhaps, something wrong, as usually she could not shut him up.

"Was anyone home?" she asked as tentatively as she could without appearing too worried - she didn't want him to think she was girlfriend material. 'Lover' sounded far more psychologically safer than 'girlfriend'.

"Yeah. Regulus."

"Punch up?"

"Eh?"

Aurora gestured to where his hand was pressing upon his abdomen. "Did he stab you?"

Sirius gave a strained chuckle. "No."

"What's wrong with you then?"

He caught her eye and immediately returned his hand to clutching the strap of his schoolbag. "Nothing's wrong with me!"

A small finger jabbed its way through his shirt and he issued an incredibly embarrassing pained yelp. Which he, of course, immediately covered with a very manly sounding cough.

"Ah-hah?"

"Oh, it was just Regulus being his usual weasely fuckwit self. What's new? Didn't lay a finger on me; only _Levicorpus'd _me, then released me so I fell down the stairs and then he…" he paused. "… like the coward he is!". He was definitely about to say something else, but it was as if he was taking an eraser to his words.

Aurora was too busy trying to violently heave the thought of that spell out of her head. She was glad he provided an opening. "How bad is your side?"

"May or may not have broken a rib. Not sure." He replied through clenched teeth.

"Oh.." Aurora gave a half-amused, half-pitying snort. She could sense the sadness radiating from him… he had lost his entire family – how could it not seep out of every pore he had? She knew he would not like it one iota if she began mollycoddling him to death, though: thank Merlin, because she did not pull off the 'mothering' trait all that well.

She pushed him gently with her shoulder, "chin up; you'll bore me very quickly if you mope about blubbering over your brother all of the time."

They turned the corner from Grimmauld Place and headed toward central London, preparatory to Floo-ing in their separate directions (Aurora and James were still very much at the awkward-acquaintance-post-complete-strangers-at-school phase. Waltzing into his house with his best friend's hand gripping her arse was probably not the most proper thing to do in such a situation, and Merlin knew she could not pry him away from her arse).

He laughed again, the second time today; it was still forced and strained… but ever so slightly less so. He drew his arm out of its knotted bearings amongst hers, and wrapped it around Aurora's shoulder. She leant in reluctantly and allowed him to kiss her on her temple. It was the least she could do given the circumstances.

"Thanks, Rora."

"See, there you go being all soppy again…"

"Fine. Fuck you?"

Aurora nodded. "I like you more already."

Regulus watched the apparent madly in love couple walk arm in arm down their street (down his street) from the comforting fortress of his bedroom. He made a mental note to never speak of his brother's visit to his parents, especially his mother. He did not want one bit of her to harbor any sort of hope that her eldest would return to her… even if that was a completely false and delusional hope. He wanted him to remain nothing to her. Nothing, so that he, her youngest and most loyal, could be everything.

_He _had loved her beyond anything. _He _would do whatever it took to make her proud, make her happy. What did Sirius do? Sirius went wherever the flimsy skirts went, apparently. He never knew the Sinistra bitch was such a treacherous slut.

He continued to watch his window well after they had left with the bag containing his brother's life. He watched until his beloved mother came back.

Kreacher, who had been calling out his to Master for quite some time, unable to break the magical ropes tying him to his ex-Master's four-poster bed, merely watched the marginally ajar door – hoping to be found.


	34. Games Begin

**Authors Note: Thank you for your lovely reviews and all the favourites/alerts. It means a lot to me that people are enjoying reading my work more than you can imagine. I just want to reiterate that I never intended this story to be about Snape alone... this story is much bigger than that; it is the people connected to him that I find equally fascinating, and that really is where this idea came about. I apologise if I don't put as much Snape in the story as some would like, perhaps... but focusing on him purely was never my intention to begin with. This is a story about families first and foremost :)  
**

**That being said - hoorah, he's in this one. Enjoy him while you can. **

**MystFatale.**

* * *

**34**

**Games Begin**

Severus collapsed the mahogany dining table, panting into his forearms.

"You are still letting me get in too far!" Serafina barked - her wand still raised at her grandsons head.

"You're not getting anywhere at all!" he snarled back with equal vehemence. He knew what her argument would be before the first word of that comeback snaked out from his lips.

"I know that you are half Muggle. I know that you are in love with a Muggle-born. I know that you lust after another. I know that you do not submit to the doctrine of the Dark Lord and therefore you are disloyal and not to be trusted. The fact that you are able to prevent me from hearing specific words or images means less than nothing!"

He didn't even bother to ask how she had managed to gauge his loyalties and history from the one infinitesimal crack in his subconscious that he had allowed her to slither into… he just knew that he had had enough. His skull felt like a half eaten bowl of treacle pudding.

Severus heard a sigh behind him, and sharp footsteps began to make their way around the table, making a stop when they were directly opposite him.

"We have a couple of days to get you completely disposed for anything he might ask of you," Serafina said as gently as she could – though the frustration in her voice could not be cloaked. "Occlumency will be your saving grace, Severus. Without it, I have no doubt that you will be killed at the hands of your contemporaries."

"I am well aware of its importance; you may skip the inspiring pep talk, _grandmother_."

"Then cease your interminable whining and do it again."

"I _can't..."_

"SHUT-UP. DO IT AGAIN!"

All desire to complain and to combat vanished, and all that was left was the yearning to obey her. Severus had never known anyone so confident in their all-consuming presence in his entire life – the Dark Lord was a shivering puppy standing in a puddle of the contents of its nervous bladder paralleled to her. Even _Aurora_ paled in comparison. Torn of her meek disguise, his grandmother towered above him… narrowed black eyes raining fire upon all of the lesser mortals of this earth. And he had no doubt that everyone was a lesser mortal… moldable, a mere instrument, in those eyes. He jolted to attention almost immediately, as if pulled by the strings of a puppeteer.

Severus's eyes were barely half-closed before Serafina's wand massacred the air.

"_Legilimens!"_

_This time he had shut the iron bars upon her intrusion into his mind. He must have. He could feel his mind being pulled toward her, ripped from his brainstem, but he kept it shut. Only her fingertips clawed at it. _

Serafina withdrew her wand and they both stumbled backward, their soft panting echoing against the cold stone walls of the ballroom of Prince Manor. If Severus had not felt so exhausted to the point of collapse, he would have smirked triumphantly. Finally. Finally he had managed it. The fact that every cell in his body ached was slightly concerning… would it be like this every day from now on?

"Finally." Severus huffed to himself, barely able to stand upright. He kept a keen eye on his grandmother – who had one hand on the back of a chair, the other on her on hip, frame equally as curved. She nodded. He was glad to get even _that _amount of approval.

"Good, now do it again."

"Wh… What?"

"You heard me. Do you think I am going to let you toddle off to join the Death Eaters after only a fluke of an Occlumency shield with all of the secrets that you hold? You'll do it again and again until I am satisfied that you won't _ever _let that guard down. Get up and do it again!"

It was the first time in years that Severus had felt salty beads fill his eyes. "I can't, I can't do it anymore," he pleaded more than argued.

Instead of showing one fragment of empathy, the equally tired looking witch stood to full height once more. "Well, we have a problem…"

"I can do anything else; you can train me in any other expanse you see fit, I just need to stop-"

"That is perfectly fine, dear. Mention to the Dark Lord that you just don't have the energy for him to probe your mind at the moment and have him concentrate on a spot of cursing. Or, if he is feeling particularly accommodating, just ask him to set you down for a bit of a nap for a few hours until you feel a hundred percent again. I would assume that a grandson as intelligent as mine would have understood the gravity of the situation by now! And here you are whining about wanting a _break_!"

"I DON'T WANT A BREAK." Severus had well and truly snapped by now. She would _not _get away with her manipulations of him. He was going to be like the only other person who refused to let her walk all over them… he would be like his mother (as astonishing as that avowal was). "I am not an idiot! I understand that he will never let me rest as long as I live, but I will _grow_ to master my skills. I am going to do none of you damned people any good if I end up a delirious vegetable in a locked St. Mungo's ward."

Serafina opened her mouth for yet another glorious retort.

"Mistress Sera! Mistress Sera!"

The House elf came scurrying around the corner of the fifteen foot oak doors. Both Serafina and Severus dropped their defenses and stood, rather awkwardly, looking at her.

"I told you not to disturb us, Missy. What is it?" Serafina enquired.

"Missy is sorry, Mistress Sera, so very sorry! But Mistress… it is Master Atticus, Mistress. He has fallen and Missy is trying to help him but Missy is not strong! Not strong like her Mistress!"

"Is he breathing, Missy?" Serafina asked, sounding alarmed… but part of Severus believed the alarm was for a very different kind of reason than that of concern for his well-being.

"Yes, Mistress."

Mistress sighed.

"Very well, I'm coming up." She pointed a well-manicured finger at Severus. "It's your lucky day, my boy. Sit and wait for me."

Severus gazed submissively to the floor and nodded, feeling both dried his tears and failure. The House Elf continued to stare at him for a while and then followed her mistress upstairs to attend to the almost nonentity Mr. Prince.

As soon as witch and house elf were out of sight, Severus made a beeline for the kitchen, where he promptly vomited into the sink.

He remained, head in basin, for a few moments before he turned on the tap and cupped the cool water in his hands, which he splashed over his face. Severus took one swig from the running liquid and spat it back out again before he turned it off and began rummaging around the draws blindly for a hand towel. There were hardly any culinary contraptions, or indeed anything remotely homely, in this kitchen. Most of the drawers were stuffed with official documents stamped from the Ministry of Magic and the odd ominous-looking magical contraption or two; one drawer contained nothing but spare potion bottles, one contained parchment and quills, the potion bottles that _were _in use were lined up neatly on the window pane – he cocked his head and read one with a small little label entitled '_Myfanwy Jenkins All-Purpose Potion Stain Remover: The Potion To Erase All Potions!'._ It was probably then, at that moment, that Severus realised he wasn't all that accustomed to living in an all magic household… it did not feel right that these things should be casually littered around the place; he had an uncontrollable urge to hide them all in the attic.

He caught sight of a stock standard document from the Ministry and, curiosity getting the better of him, picked it up. Having been brought in a world of Muggle bank statements and junk mail for Woolworths, seeing statements that included galleons and sickles fascinated him to the point of mania. He began to read what sort of information the Ministry liked to send out to the most privileged ones… he was quite taken aback to see that the Department from which this letter came from the Wizengamot.

_Attn: Ms. Serafina Black, Senior Interrogator,_

…

Severus held his stomach in and pressed on.

_I write to summon you forth for the next scheduled court date for the trial of Mister William Padget. _

_Courtroom twenty-one, April 15__th__ 1945 at precisely seven thirty A.M._

_Warmest Regards,_

_Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore_

_Chief Warlock of the Wizenga..._

"Enjoying yourself?" came a voice from directly behind him. Severus subconsciously threw the letter back into the drawer and slammed it shut.

"You never said…" Severus cleared away a croak, and started again. "You never said you were part of the Black family."

He turned to see Serafina glaring at him, arms folded.

"What does it matter? You expected me to come from muck? There are only so many pureblood households I could have sprouted from. Come, let us continue." She quickly turned from a surprised Severus, shocked that she did not give a much bigger reprimand for snooping through her personal mail, and stormed away back into the ballroom. He followed at her heels, determined to press her for more.

"So I am part Black?" he persisted. He vaguely remembered Lucius Malfoy mentioning something about the Black family when he had broken into his grandmother's memories the night that she came to find him in the motel, but there had been so much for him to take in that he had let that piece of information completely slip him by. Until now.

"You are a _Prince_."

Severus stopped short in the doorway, feeling his already delicate stomach drop to his feet; he leant weakly against the wall.

"Shall we start again?" Serafina raised her wand and waited patiently for him to respond. She seemed very eager to cut this conversation short.

"You're part of the Wizengamot?" Severus questioned, his curiosity completely overpowering the desire to continue with training. There were so many questions that his already sore head was positively spinning around the room.

Serafina flicked the wand back into the pocket, obviously resigned to the fact that she would have to have dialogue with him sooner or later. She drifted over to the window.

"I was." She corrected. Severus took a seat.

"You know Dumbledore?"

"I knew him," Serafina said indifferently. "We were colleagues for many years, he and I."

Severus shook his head. He thought he knew nothing _before_. He always blindly assumed that his grandmother was nothing more than the mere gold-digging socialite his mother despised, to find out that she actually had a career, that she sat in the same courtroom as Professor Dumbledore for years and now she was sending her own grandson to join the army directly opposing him, that she had a past within the Wizarding world.

"Right," Serafina announced loudly, signaling the very end of the conversation. "Let us leave the Occlumency until later tonight; we shall go into the grounds and practice curses."

"I am well versed in curses," Severus informed her. "I invent them. I need no practice."

He had never openly admitted that to anyone before, but he needed to trust that she would use any information he gave her to his advantage. Serafina did indeed look interested, even proud… he could see the plans forming into extravagant webs in her head.

"Then we must hone your forte. That could come in very handy down the track. Come – outside. I will get Missy to bring us some iced tea."

As he followed her through the labyrinth of corridors and entrances and exits into the vast grounds of the manor, Severus could not help but question her sudden change in direction. She was so adamant that they practice the mental arts before… and now that he was probing her for answers to questions previously unknown, it almost appeared as if she were desperately trying to avoid something letting slip from her _own _mind. He knew, somehow, that it all began with the information concealed in those letters.

After the days work had ended, Severus made a mental plan to lock himself in his new bedroom and piece it all together. There was a dangerous secret within this family – and he would have to rely on his always-dependable analytical skills as opposed to his magical abilities to unearth it before he was sent away as their bait. Before it was too late.

When they were both a safe distance from the manor, Serafina draw her wand and made a jerky pattern with it through the air. A floating white, featureless dummy materialized in front of them where it hovered eerily above Severus's head. She motioned to it.

"Let's see some of your handiwork."

He nodded and drew his wand. "Step aside."

When Serafina was positioned behind him, he mustered all of the anger within him (which did not take too long) and sliced his wand in a clean diagonal line from his hip to the top of his head.

"_Sectumsempra!"_

A flash of green light divided the space between the manor and the lush gardens beyond. The white dummy's entire head and abdomen split open and all of its fluffy, cotton insides spilled out from the hundreds of vicious incisions. He felt his grandmother's sharp fingernails dig painfully into his shoulder.

As they both stood, watching the materials disintegrate onto the manicured grass, Severus jumped when he felt her kiss the back of the head. He quickly snapped around and came face to face with the most awestruck pair of eyes he had ever seen directed at him.

"That is brilliant," she whispered, as if all faith in their plan had been completely rebuilt. "You are brilliant."

And no matter how much he hated himself for doing so – Severus smiled.

It was a pleasant new experience, having someone be proud of you.


	35. By Any Other Name

**The Pureblood Prince**

**35**

**By Any Other Name**

_The Vipera Veneficus had a reputation for being the best Wizard's Clubs in all of Britain; at least it did nowadays since its renovation. After it has changed its name. _

_Located in a particularly seedy little corner of Knockturn Alley - it once drew all kinds of wizard-folk to its doors; poor, rich, drunkards, the most violent criminals who had so far managed to avoid Azkaban, fugitives and aristocrats… it did not matter. The dancing witches made no more than the barmaids next door and had to constantly look over their shoulders. After one of the witches was found dead just outside the backdoor, the manager decided it was time for a change. _

_And thus, Vipera was born. The entire street was cleaned of its homeless deviants and stray animals and painted jet-black with thousands of tiny flickering fairies lined up against the entrance (imprisoned against their will with rope tied around their delicate ankles... this was before the DWAWFTPOFAOHMC – Disgruntled Witches and Wizards for the Protection of Fairies and Other Humanoid Magical Creatures). Anyone with less than twenty Galleons to spare and no reputable references was turned away, and they soon began to earn enough revenue to hire Magical Law Enforcement officers to patrol the back alleys on the busier nights. The dancers were the richest in the country, and the rich and prosperous came from all around the watch them, and to meet with them. _

_It was during this time that an aspiring twenty-three year-old Sarah Padget turned up at its doors and began to enslave the entire affluent wizarding population. Years later she would take her place on a panel of the British wizarding worlds most powerful men and women - this night, as she had been for the past three years, she was dressed in red lingerie and straddling an official looking middle aged wizards lap, whirling a glass of elf-made wine around in her left hand. _

"_I had hoped you would be here tonight," the wizard whispered into her ear. "I've been carrying this around in my pocket for half the week now…"_

_Sarah gazed curiously, and cautiously, downward from her position behind his ear. She had been told that before and it had ended up with the patron's extraction from the establishment. Fortunately this time, the wizard pulled out a clinking velvet bag of what was obviously Galleons – well… they had definitely better not have been sickles and knuts. She smiled. Obviously not a man of breeding. She burned him from her list of prospects. _

"_My, my, what a lucky girl am I" Sarah quipped softly into his ear, she raised one of her legs from its crossed position and wrapped them around his waist for just a split torturous second before she pushed herself harshly up from him. _

"_Where are you going?" he asked, eyebrows raised in wild shock. _

_Sarah snapped around from her quick exit. To leave you to the cheap girls, my dear. _

"_Home," she said instead. "Time has gotten away from me. Au revoir, for now."_

"… _er…"_

_She made to turn back and continue her departure, but not before she made the quick decision to strut back to him and snatch the moneybag out of his hands with a saccharine smirk. If he was going to waste her entire night for a measly pittance she might as well take it. _

"_See you tomorrow?!" he called loudly over the jazz music that played around the half-naked bodies that surrounded them. Serafina waved him away behind her back and stomped beyond the velvet black curtains into the back. _

"_That one over there is giving it away," she told one of the other girls as she passed. _

"_By the way, Sarah, he's here" the girl replied with a grin, obviously repaying Sarah's favour of pointing her in the direction of a man with more money than sense. The girl gestured toward the back and Sarah glanced over her shoulder to see her ultimate forthcoming possession. She knew nothing about him apart from his name… and his name was enough. He had just entered the establishment, along with several other wizards pushing fifty and looking very official. They weren't sat up the front whooping and gawking like the others – they merely sat in the shadows, drank and talked. All worthy possessions, but only one was pure. _

_She hoped they wouldn't have moved on to better things by the time she had managed to powder her nose. Sarah's stare lingered for a while (to make sure he had settled down nicely) before she rushed into the bathroom. She set about correcting the hitches associated with dancing in a hot club full of hot bodies and added an extra layer of plum lipstick for good measure. After she was completely satisfied that she was indeed the top picking in the building tonight, she left the bathroom and made her way back toward the public, and to him._

"_Enjoying your break?" one of the more malicious girls quipped to her from the shadows as she passed. Sarah pulled out a cigarette from a coat pocket that was hanging on a rack and lit it with her wand, which she pulled from her garter. _

"_I don't have to work as hard as you to pull money, darling" she spat back as she glided past on much higher ground. She looked back to give a freezing cold smirk but the pink-haired dancers eyes were no longer focused on her, they were perched somewhere over her shoulder. Sarah frowned, mid puff of the tobacco, and turned back just in time to be grabbed harshly by the wrists by a blurry vapor. _

"_What the-"_

"_Hello, sweetheart. Thought I'd just pay you a visit."_

"_Billy... how did you-"_

"_You can't be so stupid to believe that I wouldn't be on your case since you started working away every night and coming back every morning stinking of booze and fags and with piles of this ridiculous magic money spilling out of your pockets! Followed you here, didn't I? Shouldn't have let me in on all your little witch secrets now should you?" _

_Sarah didn't wait. There was an explosion of scorching ash as she spat out her cigarette; the man stumbled back, wailing and clutching at his eyes. "YOU – YOU –"_

_The pink haired girl, the only other being in the hall at that time, began to scream as the man caught himself from tumbling and launched himself at Sarah – shoving her into the wall. _

"_HELP!" the girl shrieked, pulling out her wand and sending a weak jet of red light tumbling toward the attacker before she turned to run away. The sparks merely scorched the hairs on the back of his head as he continued to spit insults into shrinking Sarah. It managed to break his attentions for a split second, however, and he turned to her to see her running down the corridor. _

"_I'LL SHOW YOU HOW REAL PEOPLE DO DAMAGE, SWEETHEART!"_

_Billy reached into his pocket, but before he could pull out the weapon that his threats pertained to, Sarah used his break in concentration to pull out her own weapon. _

"_OBLIVIATE!"_

_The running dancer fell to the ground with a thump before Billy could blink. _

"_Wha…" he mumbled and turned slowly to face her. "I think you missed, lovely."_

_But he was faced with the pointed end of a wand straight between his eyes. _

"_OBLIVIATE!" came the furious scream. He dropped in the very same fashion that the other unconscious party in the room did. But Sarah didn't just stop with the one this time. _

"_OBLIVIATE! OBLIVIATE! OBLIVIATE!" came the uncompromising screams of the now psychotic witch. "OBLIVATE!" The body twitched and contorted in front of her at the blue streams continued to slither their way around Billy's synapses. _

"_CRUCIO, you wretched son of a bitch!" the twitching then coupled with a face twisted with agony. She hoped he was suffering the worst kind of hell in his slumber. In the Muggle world she was a stranger, and he had once taken that to its full advantage… she only thought it fair that she return the favour when he so willingly had wandered into her world, __**her **__territory. "OBLIVATE! CRUCIO!"_

"_Woah, woah, woah!" a voice echoed down the corridor. Sarah slid down onto the floor with her arms wrapped around her face, saturated with tears. A middle aged man in an antique suit ran down toward the three traumatized bodies, were he slid and crouched next to the only one he could get answered from. "What the FUCK happened here?! S?"_

_Sarah looked up to see her manager glaring down above her, her eye make-up stained her cheeks inky black. _

"_Him," she croaked out. "It was him. He broke through that window…" Sarah gestured toward the other end of the passageway. "He attacked the both of us, Juven… he pulled out a gun. I… had to…"_

"_Gun?"_

"_A Muggle weapon… their version of Avada Kedavra…"_

"_Muggle?! How the fuck did a Muggle break their way into Knockturn Alley?! Could have been Half-Blood I s'pose but still!"_

_Juven stared at his employee, begging for more answers but none came. She had explained all she could. Her head dropped back between her knees and her back began to jolt rhythmically. _

_More footsteps radiated around her and panicked conversations echoed above her head but Sarah did not listen to them; she merely glared at the comatose monster from the top of her knees. _

_As the drowsy pink haired girl began to come to, she was quickly escorted away by the crowd of dancers and bar staff as to avoid any trauma caused the confusion of waking up to such a scene. And so for a few minutes, Sarah found herself alone with the still lifeless body of Billy Padget. She got up and with every ounce of strength left in her bruised, sore body she lifted her right leg up to the bottom of her breast and stamped straight down into his face; she could hear cartilage snap and it made her smile. _

"_I was going to tell you earlier, darling, but I want a divorce."_

_She remained standing as the Healers arrived and carted him off, followed very closely by three Magical Law Enforcement officers… to where she did not know, and what was going to happen to him remained, for now, a mystery - but she did not care. She knew the law would come for her eventually, and when they did she would be ready; but for now all she wanted to do was leave this place, her past, everything, for good. _

_She coolly pulled out another cigarette (as Billy had been so inconsiderate as to waste her first with his face), lit it up, closed her eyes and took one long drag before grabbing her coat off from the hanger and tying it around her body… a body she vowed would be the pleasure epicentre and pride and joy of a wizard, and not a common Muggle brute, from now on. _

_As she exited through one of the side doors, she made a side glance to ensure that she was not being followed by any official (or any patron) and flicked her still smoking cigarette onto the floor before the shutting the door upon it. _

_The dark dingy alleyways of Knockturn Alley was where the weak, naïve and insecure Sarah perished, exactly where she belonged. _

_Serafina had been freed. _


	36. Time Turning

_It's been yonks. I know. :( I'm getting married in two weeks though, so that's excuse I keep telling myself. _

_Enjoy._

* * *

**Pureblood Prince 36**

**Time Turning**

Tobias felt like death. That in itself was not all too surprising, given the… current state of things, but he had usually been able to sleep the days off, now he was barely asleep for an hour.

There was a reason there was no clock on this floor. Firstly, the heavy smoke and sheer size of the looms that towered above them would obliterate it from view; but more importantly, it was vital for workers morale that they were not privy to how much time they had left in the day.

He knew he had roughly about five more hours to go, if he worked through the half hour lunch. The looms were thumping his brain right to the back of his skull like they had done in his younger days before the partial deafness had set in. He just wanted to go home, check Ei was still safe and go to bed. The foreman shouting in this direction didn't help things.

"Twenty-two's in the shit, Snape!"

Tobias gave the thumbs up in acknowledgement left the piles of half-woven cotton he was inspecting to head over to the other side of the factory floor.

"Owt up?"

"Bleeding shuttle tension's gone. Just what I needed when I got two tonnes of fibers to get through..."

Toby gave an exasperated groan of acknowledgement before shoving his black, shaking hands into the still-operational machine. "Harness strap's misaligned," he mumbled through the pounding in his face.

"Fuck, 'ow long's that gonna take to fix?"

Toby coughed out the smoke that was slowly filling up every crevice in his lungs.

"Take me about half the day, this."

"Fuck's sake."

"Yer telling me…" _Though maybe this might just get me in the good books with the boss, God knows I need it. _Tobias thought. He glanced over to the foreman, caught his eye and made a kill gesture; the foreman rolled his eyes and nodded.

"I have ter shut this one down, Wally. Yer done for t'day."

The operator looked at his leather watch, Toby couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. "Drink, I think; yer comin' Tobe?"

"Yeah in a tick," he said, "got sommet to do first."

The first thing Tobias was accosted with as soon as he knocked on and entered the mill managers office was a raised eyebrow and a snort.

"Couldn't have waited for me to summon you in?" he murmured over the pile of papers and ballpoint pen.

"Sorry, Bernie."

The seated man eyed him for a while, paused and then threw down his pen upon the desk and gestured to the plastic seat opposite him. Tobias couldn't help but feel instantly uncomfortable, and consequently pissed off, at how ridiculously small he felt in the presence of this man and his office… it might as well have been a solid gold palace in comparison to his own work station – or lack of work station. He did as he was told, and sat.

"Make it quick, Snape."

And he made it as quick as he could possibly manage. "Can I have my bonus early?"

"Jesus, you don't beat around the bush."

"Yeh told me to make it quick!"

Tobias had to take a moment to remember who he was talking to. He composed himself. Bernie sighed.

"Do you know how many workers I have under this roof? Give one to you and I'd have to do the same to everyone. And Christmas is bleeding four weeks away!"

"I won' tell anyone, I swear. Just…" Toby realised as he said how desperate he was sounding. It was hard not to sound desperate when you had just played host to a loan shark who barged his way through your house and put his hands on your wife. "… please. I'll work overtime for nought for as long as yeh want."

Bernie's expression changed to one of almost pity. "I can't help you, Toby. I'm sorry. You'll get your bonus – but it'll be when everyone else. Get off home, eh?"

It took all of the strength left in him not to let the muscles in his neck completely give way. Toby nodded. "Right. See yeh tomorrow then."

He could not have gotten out of that shithole fast enough. Between the pounding jackhammer in his head and the crippling embarrassment of pleading with his boss for cash, Tobias had had just about enough. The sharp stab of cold air that assaulted his lungs as he stumbled down the steps of the mill was a much welcomed relief. He got twenty meters from the Lion's Head before the visions of her covered in his blood stopped him… he had never managed to stop himself before. He almost tripped over a small kid as he backed off from the thing that had destroyed most of his life, he stumbled as the boy capered away toward an alley and had to grab onto a lamppost to stop himself from falling onto the road.

A wave of nausea washed over him and he watched the boy run away, then his aching stomach completely dropped to his feet when the lad quickly his face toward him before disappearing. It was Severus. Oversized, tatty clothes and all. Tobias began to run down the alleyway after him but there was no sign of his son… he had disappeared just as he had before.

With a sigh of relief, Toby found his wife lounging in their leather chair, turning the page of a book when he slammed the front door and rushed into the living room.

"Is he here?"

Eileen glanced up and frowned.

"Parker? No he isn't. No thanks to you. Thanks for helping me clean up by the way, you lazy arse -"

"Severus. Is he here?"

The book slammed sit and dropped into her lap.

"No… why?" he could almost hear springs in her body readying themselves for release. "Why?" she asked again, more forcefully.

Tobias opened his mouth to explain what he had seen, but he was struggling with the words and she was getting impatient.

"_Why?!_"

"I saw him running around near the pub."

All of the excitement in his wife's face vanished about halfway through that sentence.

"You saw him running around near the pub." She repeated very slowly, very condescendingly. "… And what exactly were you _doing_ near the pub?"

Beads of sweat began to drip their way down Toby's face – for what reason he was not sure.

"He's a child!"

Saying it out loud was even more preposterous than seeing it. Ei was clearly not amused.

"I don't think Severus has _ever _been a child, Toby."

"No!" balance was near impossible to him now and he managed to angle himself enough to just fall into the opposing chair, the only thing he could see in the spinning room was Ei and her crossed arms, glaring at him through her curtain of black hair. _Yeah, you just sit there in your bubble of scorn while I just lay here and die. Such a kind, caring, nurturing wife you are. _"I mean he… _is… a child! _He looks like he did when he was, I dunno, six or sommet! Thought it could be some magic thing. Could it? I'm sure yeh mentioned about some piece of junk that could turn back time -"

"Idiot! It could be some kid who _looks _like him!"

"I know what my son looks like: My face. Yer hair. Yer eyes. Believe me, it were him."

Ei had that look on face; her wheels were turning. Like she was running through every single spell or potion or god knows what in her head. Finally her face relaxed, and the wheels came to a halt.

"You listen to me," she said very sternly, "if you go anywhere near that pub again you are going to regret it until to the end of your short-lived days. It's bad enough you've landed us in more debt than we could pay off in a hundred life cycles and it turns you into a violent pig of man, but don't do this to me."

"I ain't touched a drop today, I swear!" For once, he was not lying to her.

"Oh, go to hell Toby, I can't even look at you. Sometimes I wish I finished the job!"

It was clear she was not going to believe him. Despite how angry that made him, he could vaguely understand her; he was even starting to doubt himself. Did he really see the boy, or was it his deep innate desire to antagonize her by using their son as bait that manifested itself into his form?

No. No, he had _definitely_ seen him. And he was _sure _there was something those folk used to turn back time. It was entirely possible. Anything was possible in this family.

Ah, to heck with them both. He was on the verge of collapse and she didn't care one bit. "Already there, love!"

He didn't even bother trying to figure out the meaning of the other thing she had said, he could barely hold himself against the bannister as he dragged himself up to the bedroom and plonked down on the bed as the ceiling spun around in circles above him.

Why in all fuck did he feel like this? Was this what all the sober people felt all the time? He didn't remember wanting to kill himself when he was fourteen, before the drinking; though he didn't remember much of his childhood at all. Tobias felt his stomach twisting inside him, and, inevitably, the metallic taste in the back of his mouth that he remembered so well. He scrabbled around on the floor for a container of any possible kind, but it was too late. His insides surrendered their content over the carpet - and he probably wouldn't wake up again if Ei came up to bed later on and found it. Toby clasped the windowsill, pulled himself up and came face to face with his very young son again through the window.

He hadn't shrieked like he did just then in… ever since he could remember. He stumbled back through his vomit and hit the back of his head on the bedside table. Sev stared at him pitifully for a moment, before seemingly descending back down into the garden.

Toby ran to the window, shouting his name, but his view of the front of the house was obstructed and he could not see where he had gone. The second last thing he remembered thinking before passing out on the bed, covered in the contents of his own stomach, was _Ha! Told you so, Ei. Last time you'll ever doubt me._

And, subsequently, the very last thought was about how much he hated himself for even thinking of the second-last one… and that for years, not a single thought had really been truly spent on his child. Not one.

With the exception of this one.

Perhaps.


	37. Last Meals

_Whew. It's been a loooong time! I am so sorry. I'm still writing, I promise you. I've just had a terrible case of writer's block which is unfortunately what happens when I have periods of down moods. Here's a nice little intense piece for you all to enjoy... hope you like it. (and more to come shortly)_

* * *

**The Pureblood Prince **

**37**

**Last Meals **

Regulus Black had never felt happier in this life. Everywhere he trod, he was applauded and congratulated. The Dark Lord broke forth from the crowd that now looked like mere smudges of wet paint in comparison to the sharpness of his image. He drifted toward him, and in his eyes there shone nothing but the purest of pride.

But Regulus received no comfort from that, no warmth, no affection… well… not affection, exactly, but at least he thought there would be a certain kind of _regard. _But there was no regard and there was no ill feeling. He felt nothing toward the Dark Lord. He was indifferent. His Masters pride was not the reason that he was contented: the face of his mother was…

She had never smiled at him the way she did now – with the Dark Mark singing out proudly on his left arm. All his life, his main ambition was to make her happy, make her proud, and he had settled all of his life with slight stiff nods of agreement (if he was lucky), or, more usually, mere silence to indicate that he had done nothing wrong… yet. The upward curve of the lip was usually reserved for Sirius.

But now it was he who was the victor! His brother had all but vanished from Walburga's thoughts (and quite literally from the family tree), and he was all that was left; the only one who could take care of her. She made her way to the front of the crowd; the Dark Lord had all but vanished from sight now.

She wrapped her arms around him for the first time, and slowly kissed his lips. Regulus could feel himself melting. If becoming a Death Eater was all he had to do to keep her this way forever – it would be a small price to pay. He remained in her arms for a few moments, not knowing quite how to respond as no one had ever held him before, but he knew that he liked it…

"You're everything a mother could hope for," she whispered in his ear with such affection that it sent tingles down his spine.

"T-Thank you, mother…"

And then all of a sudden, about ten pairs of hands grabbed him from behind. They began to drag him away from her, and from the rest of his family who had now gathered and were watching him with gleaming faces. Regulus began fighting against the group – but the more he fought, the more he appeared frightened and antagonistic to what was happening, the more disappointed his mother looked.

Before he knew it, he was being dragged toward a murky cliff. Two feet from the edge – the cloaked figures stopped for a moment; Regulus craned his neck, searching for his mother, his eyes pleading with her to rescue him, to save him from this fate… but when he finally found her face, he saw nothing but the purest pride in her eyes.

There was nothing he could do. He was utterly powerless. Live and be hated, or die and be loved. Either way, he would never be with her again. He had to make her proud… he hoped she would cry for him the way she had cried for Sirius. He closed his eyes and tilted his body backward.

An almighty thump radiated from the back of his head to the back of eyes. He opened his eyes and thought he was dead… but then he saw the hazy silhouette of the black chandelier looming above him and felt the stinging in his eyes, and he knew this wasn't death. It was painful, excruciating life. Every detail of the dream came back to him in one swift hit, and he could not contain his sobs.

After about two minutes, the bedroom door slowly creaked open – unheard by the inconsolable teenager. The only sign he received of a presence in the room was when a tiny skeletal hand reached out and began to slowly stroke his shuddering shoulder blade. Regulus flinched at first, but gently melted into the touch; he needed someone to be with him and to hold him, it had never and would never be his own mother, so he would have to make do.

The House elf cradled his head as he cried himself to sleep, and was still rocking him by the time dawn had began to make its way through the heavy black curtains.

* * *

It was an unusually sunny August morning. It was not that August was an unusually sunny month - it was just that the summery, luminous glow that filled the air was at wars with the dark, murky storm that was currently wrecking havoc within Severus's chest. So today was the day…

"Stop cracking your knuckles!" Serafina barked. They were swiftly walking side-by-side amongst the high grass on the way toward the dark glen; the glen that was all too familiar for Serafina, but a stranger to the now trembling Severus.

The dense, foggy marshland was coming clearer and clearer into view.

"Wait," Severus objected. He was barely audible but Serafina halted in her tracks.

"We can't _wait_," she explained simply, still with her back to him. "He won't _wait _for you."

Severus nodded, though he had no idea who he was nodding to. "I realise that, but it would be better to wait just a few minutes then for him to catch on to what we're doing…"

Serafina bit so hard on her thumbnail that she almost ripped a corner off it. "A fair point. What is the matter?" – it was now that she turned to look at him, and he did not look at all well.

"What's the matter?" Severus repeated, barely able to believe that he had heard that question come out of her mouth. "I'm about to become enslaved for my, now presumably, very short lifespan - and you… I don't know why I bother. You're a mound of flint. Forget it."

And instead of receiving just a single shred of sympathy, Severus found himself being shoved up against the side of a tree by a surprisingly sturdy seventy-something year old woman.

"What on earth has happened to you in the space of twenty-four hours?" Serafina demanded, her hand inches from roping his jugular. "I had trained you perfectly; you were impeccable in your skills! I was proud to call you my blood… and now…" she huffed through her nose. "… Now you have apparently transformed yourself into a whiny brat. We should turn back now and spare ourselves the embarrassment."

Severus knew she was only trying to provoke him. He would have spat in her face, but it would have been what she had wanted. He merely smirked.

"If only…"

The grip loosened a little.

"This is the last time you are allowed one shred of sentiment, so I hope you use it well. Once we are within the boundaries of the dark glen everything you do and everything you think will be closely monitored; take a moment to say whatever it is that's on your mind and for Merlin's sake be done with it."

Severus pondered her words for a while. With one of her hands so close to his collar, the only fitting response to this was: "it's like having a noose around my neck…"

He could tell he should not have said what he did, for her eyes became soft and she released him.

"Let's go," she instructed softly. "I'll be just behind you."

There was a distinct drop in temperature as the sky became dense with towering trees. Severus took this as a cue to empty his mind of all that he held dear, while trying to focus on the lake looming ahead of them, and not the unbearable desire to look in all directions at once – wondering where the Dark Lord would choose to appear.

The pair of them didn't dare speak or look at one another while they waited in silence. All Severus could do was focus on his breathing; the sudden shift in temperature had turned his breath from invisible to smoky… it was as if his own breath was taunting him.

He didn't have long to ponder his respiration rate, for soon two cloaked figures with white masks had appeared in front of them with a sound like the cracking of a whip. One of them Severus instantly recognised as Lucius Malfoy (with his long blonde locks he couldn't be anyone but): a prefect that had welcomed him into Slytherin house when he was but a first year. The other he was unsure of…

"Bring him here." A cold voice emanated from the shadows. Lucius and the other Death Eater grabbed underneath his arms harshly. Severus felt his grandmother's hand grasp protectively at his shoulder – but by the time he turned around to look at her, Serafina had appeared to quickly regain her composure.

The next thing he knew, he was surrounded by a dozen or so masked Death Eaters – enclosing him in an ethereal circle. From beyond their shoulders, he saw a shadow snake its way over the misty lake. An unforgiving, uncontrollable handful of fire ignited from deep within Severus's throat… he was almost certain, from the way that the Dark Lord hung in mid-air, surveying his prey, that he had been immediately found out and would be blasted into a thousand pieces on the spot.

"Kneel," the Dark Lord ordered in a voice no louder than a harsh whisper. Before he could do anything, Severus felt every muscle cell in his body twitch and pull one all-consuming direction. He was now on his knees with about ten wands were marked on his eyes from the surrounding Death Eaters. Severus's mind continued to be nothing but a black hole… he knew that he must not falter now; if his mind resisted the Imperius curse, even for a moment, it would all be over.

"Very good…" came the empty voice of approval; Severus would have breathed a sigh of relief if his mind had allowed it. "You may leave us. Lucius – stay."

He wanted to look around for his grandmother. As much as he reviled her and the prison she had entrapped him in, it would have been nice to see a familiar face. But he knew she had gone, or had been forced to leave, along with everyone else. Only the three of them remained.

Severus kept his eyes trained on the long grass directly below him. Above he heard the Dark Lord whisper under his breath, and suddenly his invisible bonds were released. He remained in his submissive position.

"He knows his place," the Dark Lord hissed approvingly. "Rise."

Severus waited for the Imperius curse to take hold once more, but no force came. It was clear that he was expected to do this of his own accord and will. He stood to his full height, not daring to look his future master in the eye just yet.

"Lucius – you are still ready and willing to remain benefactor to our newest recruit, I trust? You are prepared to be solely responsible for his ongoing training and delivering his retrospective punishments if he fails to perform?"

"I am, my Master." Came the elder man's voice from behind Severus's left ear. It was clear that there was no more than a foot between them.

"Very well, then. Severus Tobias Snape…" the Dark Lord called. "… It is a pleasure to meet you at last."

His voice was the coldest sound that had ever penetrated Severus's ears. No pleasure whatsoever had passed through that heart, he was sure.

"Thank you for the privilege, my Lord." He dutifully replied.

"We've had a lot of promises made about you, boy. I trust that you will exceed them… and in return you shall be rewarded beyond your wildest dreams."

"I will do whatever you bid, my Lord."

"Good boy. Now look into your Masters eyes. Observe him."

Severus did as he was bid. He was met with an approving smile… well… not much of a smile as a slit.

"Then it is time to test your devotion, Severus Tobias Snape. My dear Serafina has filled me with high hopes."

He nodded toward his left shoulder. "Lucius, into your position."

Severus was momentarily met with the icy grey eyes behind the white mask that he was sure he would soon be getting warmly acquainted with. Lucius's wand was, for a second time, directed straight at him. Severus focused every molecule of his being on slowing down his rising inhalations…

"You are willing to do whatever I bid," Lord Voldemort repeated. "That promises great loyalty… and loyalty is a asset that I value above all others. If I were to test that loyalty, do you think that you would emerge victorious, Severus?"

"Without a shadow of a doubt, my Lord" Severus answered – without a shadow of a doubt.

"Then let us experiment. Lucius - whenever you are ready…"

Before Severus had time to process what was just uttered, a bolt of red flashed in front of his eyes. In a millisecond he was on the floor, the screams were unavoidable. A thousand white-hot needles drilled their way into the epicentre of every nerve in his body. He had never felt physical pain like this in his entire life, nor did he think it were possible to feel pain like this. Within sixty seconds of thrashing about on the grass, grasping onto it for dear life, he felt the peripheries of his eyes slowly begin to cave in; he knew he was about to lose consciousness. Severus could only pray for it. Because he was not going to beg for relief and fail his first test… no…

"Stop, Lucius."

Thankfully, so very thankfully, relief came without begging. The curse had been lifted, and he was left turned face down in the marshland, clutching onto the earth for dear life. Severus felt as though every bone in his body had just been crushed simultaneously. Movement was a complete impossibility.

The coldest hand he had ever felt slid its way underneath his head and cupped his chin upward. He could see Voldemort's face beyond his bloodshot and tear-filled eyes, he made out a faint nod.

"Did that feel good, Severus? Did it feel good to please me?"

Barely able to keep his eyes open, let alone focused, Severus shut them and whispered: "Yes. Yes."

"It did, didn't it? However, I am afraid you have a long way to go before _I _am pleased. Let us give it a few hours and then we shall see what real, true loyalty looks like. Lucius? Again, please."

_No, no, no, no, no, no, please, please, please, please…_

The bolt came so fast that Severus's clenched jaw locked tight around his tongue as his body arched at what felt like a complete right angle. He could feel a warm and thick substance drench his entire face and neck, but he did not have the mental capacity to decipher that it was his own blood.

The torture and screams came in their constant unrelenting waves over the course of those first excruciating three hours that would forever be branded into his memory. The more and more they came, the more and more Severus prayed for death. The more and more he prayed for death, the more and more intense the pain… slowly, Severus begun to forget everything down to his name.

"Loyalty is bliss, is it not? Answer!"

"Yes," Severus choked. It was only by rearranging his knowledge of the English language that he was able to answer and mean it. Yes was not yes anymore, yes was no from here on in. "Yes, my Lord."

The only thing he didn't forget, however, was the reason he was there. It was the sole thought that kept his other thoughts locked away, safe in the vaults of his subconscious. It was possibly the only thing that kept him alive that night. The three hours came and went after what seemed like ten million hours; but he knew, he _knew _it would never be that easy. He knew the next stage of the initiation was waiting for him.

If this had been the mere appetizer, this torture beyond torture… the thought of what was to come – the rest of the initiation and the years beyond – could simply not be stomached. The horrors were literally unimaginable.

He could only thank his lucky stars that, just for this moment, he had an excuse to scream.


	38. The Other Half

**The Pureblood Prince**

**38 **

**The Other Half**

Aurora's fork scraped across her plate back-and-forth several times, reaching for absolutely nothing, before Sirius gripped her wrist to stop her.

"Stop it, will you? You're driving me nuts!"

Aurora looked up with a glare. "I can always jab it in your eye instead…"

"What's gotten your sexy knickers in a knot?"

She threw down the fork, pushed the plate of half-eaten bacon sandwich toward the centre of the table and cocked her head curiously. "I'm not going to even answer that ludicrous question."

Sirius smiled empathetically and rubbed the area of wrist that he had previously grasped. "They're not going to hate you, Viper, not if I like you so much."

"Barking up the wrong tree, Sirius. Do I look like I care if they'll like me or not?"

"Ok, I get it. You're hopelessly attracted to me… I mean, obviously… but you don't like James or Remus –"

"I like Remus."

"Ah, so we get to the sparkly pink hippogriff in the room…"

"You can't pretend the feeling won't be mutual," Aurora bit as she pushed back her chair and made her way across her kitchen. "I mean – what did he say when you told him about us? You _have _told him about us, haven't you?"

"Of course!" Sirius bellowed with a mouthful of sandwich. He quickly swallowed and continued: "Prongs is fine with us. He trusts me. Besides, if you're going to want to come to his house, the house in which I share with him, then he's going to want to be on friendly terms with the girl who is banging her head against my bedroom wall every night."

Aurora hid her smile by searching through her kitchen cupboards for a glass.

"Wishful thinking times a million," she murmured. "Orange juice?"

"Please. Thanks for the sandwich, by the way."

"Not at all. You're lucky my brothers are out – every crevice of the kitchen would have been bare."

"Maybe we should get a place of our own…" Sirius mused behind her. When he saw Aurora's face returning dangerously close to him with two glasses of orange juice in her hands he quickly added, "joking!"

"Please go back to your house without me today; I have a lot of study to do and a field trip to the Orkney Isles to plan."

"No," Sirius replied. "I want you two to meet without stupid school politics involved… you don't have to be his friend, just… be amiable. I can always ask Moony to come along to make it easier?"

"Who the heck is Moony?"

"Remus. Sorry."

"And it matters this much that I get along with all of your Gryffindor comrades?"

Sirius shrugged sheepishly. "Yeah. And they're my best friends, no matter what _House _they were sorted into… just like how I want to desperately get inside your pants, despite you being Slytherin scum."

Oh, her ever reliable non-sentimental Sirius. Aurora was glad that he didn't come out with some melodramatic dribble about how much he cared for her or such other nonsense. She sighed and plonked herself down on his lap.

"Fine, we'll go. But do one thing for me first…"

An hour later, the couple emerged, coughing, through the fireplace situated in the middle of the Potter's living room. They both looked slightly disheveled… but that could have been blamed on the mode of transport – not the sexual exploits that had just occurred. No one else was here.

"Huh, he might be out. Might be your lucky day… me licking you up the legs and not having to see James."

"Sh!" Aurora reprimanded.

Sirius grabbed her hand and began dragging her up the stairs. "Come on, I need to change anyway."

They made their way up the narrow stairs of the very homely looking abode. When they reached the landing, Sirius turned and knocked on the very first door that they came to; music was blaring from behind its wooden frame. "Oi, Prongsy! It's three o' clock! Time to get up you lazy prat."

He opened the door and immediately the couple were hit with a wall of what Aurora assumed was Muggle rock music (not completely heinous as Aurora imagined it would be). Two figures from the bed immediately looked up at them; one was James Potter, the other Lily Evans. She was lying with her head in his lap, and from the looks of it he was halfway through running a hand through her hair.

"Ah huh. Well at least you both are clothed. Sorry." Sirius apologized, but he entered James's bedroom anyway. Aurora stayed back within the hallway, never feeling so uncomfortable and awkward in her life. Before Sirius had a chance to make mention of her, Lily had lifted her head and was now gazing curiously behind her boyfriend's best friend.

"Aurora? What are you doing here?"

She could have killed Sirius. So he hadn't said _anything _about them whatsoever.

Before she could think of an answer (because Sirius was of absolutely no help at all), James interjected. "Oh, they're a thing now. Hi Aurora." He greeted her quite nonchalantly.

Aurora nodded in equal restraint. "Hello."

"Huh? Them?" Lily queried, gesturing between Sirius and Aurora. "But I thought," she paused and sat further upright on the bed. "I thought you and Severus were…?"

The distaste from the other three faces in the room was so apparent that it could possibly have been spotted from space.

"No!" Aurora objected just a little too loudly. She received a very favorable hug around the shoulder from Sirius and a little smile from James. "Well… I just mean that he's… not my type. Nor in my league."

She had certainly won in the boys' books. Lily, however, merely shrugged.

"Fair enough. Well, come in and we can have a proper chat. You know sometimes I think the housing system at school is awfully wrong. You hardly get to know anyone outside your chosen House."

"I know. I think the exactly the same way," Aurora replied. "It really only becomes apparent when one has graduated; before then Slytherin law dictated that I must hate you all."

"Worked two ways," James grinned. "Well it's nice to meet a sociable Slytherin for once anyway."

_And good to see a Gryffindor with a head smaller than the size of a boulder. For once, anyway. _Thought Aurora. _Give it time, though, it'll probably swell again in time. _

So she sat with the three of them. A 'proper chat' was probably far too overstated, but at least the discussions were sociable and ordinary. Aurora had missed ordinary conversation. It felt good to have to not think too hard for once.

Aurora stayed for a couple more hours. Lily and James had invited the pair to come with them to a pub down the road, but she had politely refused – stating that she needed to get home to study for her multivariable calculus exam that she had on in a couple of days… not a lie. She and Sirius remained in his bedroom for a while. They shared a bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhiskey, stripped down to their underwear and lounged on his bed; Aurora slipped up only once when she caught sight of a shiny copy of _Advanced Potion Making _sitting tightly up on Sirius's shelf and felt her stomach drop. She wondered if Eileen had managed to read it… no, she didn't wonder… she didn't wonder. She told herself that she didn't care and that was what she was determined to do.

"Everything alright, darling?" Sirius queried after gazing at her pained expression for a few silent seconds.

His voice broke into her deep thought, and it rather infuriated her. She suddenly felt rather self-conscious sitting here in nothing but her bra and knickers.

"Yeah…" Aurora said absent-mindedly. "Don't call me darling."

"Sorry, sugartits."

"Sirius," she warned. "Just…"

"Oh, what now?" he cooed, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her down onto the bed. "Forget about your study for a few hours. Where's that Astronomy twaddle gonna take you anyway? To Io?"

Joking or not, that was the final straw for the day. Aurora pushed him violently away from her and began pulling on her clothes. "I have to go. See you later."

"Let me walk you!"

"Sirius!" Aurora snapped midway from pulling her top over her pounding head. "All I have to do is Disapparate. Are you going to walk me over to the corner of the room, or…?"

Sirius looked positively flabbergasted.

"Er… well… fine. See you tomorrow, then? I'll come by the Academy after your lectures and we can eat. Or something."

She sighed. "Yes, fine. See you."

Aurora Disapparated without knowing where she really wanted to go.

* * *

As she suspected, she did not end up back at her house. She was back in Northern country.

She had no idea what on earth she was going to do in this place… but seeing that book, and reading those Daily Prophet articles about the new order of Death Eaters, had greatly troubled her again. It was a message that she had not done all that she could to alert people to how dangerous Severus could possibly be. If she did not do all that she could, and he ended up a murderer, the blood of the victims he took would be on her conscience permanently. But what could she do?

Aurora decided that she had to talk to Eileen again – she was obviously in the right place to do at least that. And this time she would have to come out and say exactly what was on her mind. Perhaps Eileen was the only person that could stop him; perhaps she could force her to alert Dumbledore… Well, it was the best plan her brain could come up with in the walk from the river to Spinners End; it would have to do.

As Aurora rushed down the smoggy cobblestoned streets, she hastily avoided the eyes of the Muggles who frowned in her direction. These weren't the kind of Muggles you'd want to get any sort of attention from. Eventually she made the turn into Spinners End and headed to number 52, when she got there she was met with a scene of utter devastation.

The front door had been left wipe open, its two small windowpanes had been completely shattered. Glass and a few items of clothing were scattered down the hallway and the piece of pavement at Aurora's feet. She quickly turned her head sideways to ensure that it was the right house before she timidly poked her head through, one hand involuntarily covering her mouth. "Sev? Severus?" she whispered. Not a sound was heard from inside. Aurora made her way through into the entrance, glass cracking underneath her heels as she walked. "… Eileen?"

The commotion in the hall must've stirred something from within the furthest room of the ground floor; all of a sudden she heard slow, heavy footsteps making their way toward her. The first thing she could make out was the scoured, weary looking face of the same man that had opened the door to her the first time she came here - his eyes so bloodshot that they were positively burgundy.

"_You _again…" he drawled as he made his way into the hallway toward her. Aurora started to back away, now fearing for her own safety. "They ain't here. They ain't never gonna come back here. Alright? Now get out before I _make _you."

"What have you done to her?" Aurora asked almost inaudibly, feeling panic rising within her stomach.

He was never going to answer that question - she had expected that. What she also expected was that he was about to do something rash in the heat of the moment – she could tell from his demeanor that he was not one for talking issues out. Aurora saw him reach for something from within the living room, and it was a matter of mere seconds before she had drawn her wand and was using it to fragment the vase that came flying toward her head before it had chance to strike her.

"GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HOUSE, WITCH!" the man bellowed. When he began to storm toward her, Aurora could do nothing else but run. She made it, albeit feeling as though her lungs were about to explode, to the end of the street where she stood like a dumbfounded imbecile – turning her body in all sorts of directions, completely uncertain about where she should go, who she should tell…

There was no way that Severus had fallen victim to that Muggle - but something awful had very recently happened to his mother. Her first thought was to alert Magical Law Enforcement, but if Severus was now a fully-fledged dark wizard then that could mean a one-way ticket to Azkaban for the rest of his life if they got the Aurors involved. She would have to go to the Muggle law enforcement officers. She would find it almost impossible to Apparate there, seeing as she had no clue where the Muggles kept their headquarters. She would have to ask for directions and make her way there by foot.

Would alerting Muggles be enough? _No, _Aurora decided. _I need to speak to Dumbledore. I don't know why… I don't know how… but he'll know what to do. He can deal with it and I can go back to worrying about my studies instead of worrying about Death Eaters and a possible… no, we won't even think about that… she'll be found and she'll be ok. _

Dumbledore would fix this.

He could always fix things.

* * *

**Thank you for your reviews.**


	39. The Catastrophe Before The Storm

**The Pureblood Prince**

**39**

**The Catastrophe Before The Storm **

Tobias had had another sleepless night. No matter what he said, his wife refused to believe that this was the worst he had ever felt. His body was failing him, Sev kept popping up in the strangest places, Eileen wasn't speaking to him, and he still owed hundreds of pounds to the gangster who had once torched their house in the past.

Life was splendid.

It didn't make it better that he was currently speaking to said gangster on the phone, in the most subdued way that he could while his wife slept upstairs after her shift.

"A week! Just give me a week!" Tobias whispered and shouted at the same time. His eyes drifted toward Eileen's handbag that was hanging from the doorknob; as they did do, he felt like strangling himself with the cord. "It's only twenty pounds more for Christ's sake."

"If I waited fer everyone, Snape, I'd be as much of a poor fuck as you" the muffled voice of Parker crackled over the other end.

"Jus…" Tobias couldn't tear his eyes away from her bag. It was making his heart pound out of his chest. If he could just do this one more time, just once… all of their problems would go away in an instant – he was sure of it. But the lack of the drinking over the past month or so was making him see things clearer. He couldn't do it. "Just give me a week, _please…_"

"How about this…" the voice crackled after a few seconds of silence. "I give yeh – out of the goodness of my heart – until tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!" Tobias echoed raucously, flinching at his own voice. "Tomorrow?" he repeated, but this time with a whisper. "Twenty pieces of brass means _that _much to yeh?"

"Twenty pounds, twenty pence, it don't matter what: it's _my _money, and if yeh don't have it by tomorrow I'll be back to pay a visit to yer missus and this time I won't be so reserved."

"You FUCKING touch her again and a _billion _pounds'll be the last thing on yer mind!" Toby roared, the thought of attempting to be quite had all but leapt out of the window… so much so that he failed to notice the footsteps slowly coming down the stairs.

"Well, we'll see, won't we?" was the last thing Toby heard before the phone went _click._

"_Ungh!_" Tobias clenched his fist around the phone in fury before hurling it across the room, where it landed amongst a pile of Ei's books. He turned away from the damned thing, only to be confronted with the scowling face of his wife in the doorway.

"Having fun?" she asked.

"Just someone from work –" he shrugged off.

"Please," Eileen implored with a raised black eyebrow. "As far as I can remember, no-one from the mill has touched me before. Which is funny, because I don't think _you _will be touched ever again either. How was Parker, by the way?"

"It weren't him."

"_For God's sake, Tobias."_

"HE WAS FUCKING FABULOUS. Is that all? Can you piss off to bed now and leave me think?" Another migraine was on the horizon, he was sure.

"That's what I was _trying _to do before!" Ei countered. "I was perfectly sleepy before I heard that that toothless bastard is coming back here to lay his hands on me tomorrow!"

"And yeh can't fucking stop him, then? What kind of witch are you anyway? Magick us up some money for once!"

"I have told you over and over for twenty eight years – I _physically cannot _transfigure money. Gawp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration."

"Yeah, yeah, so you've been saying!"

"So I've always wanted to live like this, have I?"

"Go to bed and shut yer big trap!"

Ei opened her mouth to continue the verbal jousting, before obviously thinking better of it. She swallowed whatever insult was on her tongue, huffed and stormed away. Tobias watched her leaving and rubbed his sweaty brow. What did he want – did he want Parker back here tomorrow while Ei was all on her own or did he want him to leave them alone forever by doing this one, horrible little thing for the last time?

_I mean, why doesn't she just give me the money anyway? Then he'd go away permanently. The selfish…_

It was what he needed to tell himself to be able to reach into her bag again and pull out her wallet.

"What are you doing?"

Hearing Eileen's voice from the top of the stairs alone was enough to make the bag appear blazing hot, as if someone had dropped a pile of hot coals into its pockets. He let it go with violent force.

"Eh?" Toby asked, knowing he was appearing far too casual for someone caught red-handed. She flew down the stairs with an almost supernatural force.

"Your hand," Eileen stated, pronouncing every word slowly and deadly, about in inch to his face, "was in my handbag."

"I needed some tissues."

"Don't lie to me."

"Don't read my mind!"

"Argh!" with one swift movement Eileen had pushed him onto the floor – a combination of adrenalin and Tobias's weakened physical state. "You – you – worthless piece of space! You've been stealing from your own wife to pay off another worthless piece of space you owe drug money to?"

"I was doing it to keep yeh safe from him!" Tobias objected from the floor. "Why didn't yeh just _give _me the money and then this problem wouldn't have gotten so big in the first place!"

"DON'T YOU DARE, DON'T YOU DARE BLAME ME FOR THIS!". He had never seen her so livid, so void of restraint - like she always was whenever Severus was in the house. Spit was flying from her mouth as she towered over him like some crazed banshee. "That was _our _money! _Our _money to _eat_, to keep us _clothed_! Not to pay off your addictions! I work my fingers to the bones just to stop us from living on the streets and you go and blow it on booze and fuck knows what! I can't even look at you…"

She rubbed her hand across her forehead and stumbled into the kitchen. When Tobias finally managed to push himself up from the floor and follow her, he found her bent over the kitchen sink. Her breast-length black hair completely sheltered her face – but from the way her shoulders were quivering, he could tell she was crying. A silent cry.

"Ei…" Toby started, but he did not know how was going to finish. "I hated myself for doing it, I did. I hate myself for everything I do to yeh but –"

"So many 'buts' Tobias," Eileen whispered. "All I've heard since we first met is excuses."

"_But…_" he dared to continue, "I just… I just wanted to get rid of him! You know what happened last time! Why couldn't yeh just help me out!"

The black hair whipped across her wet face and he saw her full fury flourishing. "_I WAS helping you out by keeping the damn house on my measly pittance! _You may not realise that we actually need to pay the bills and the mortgage and keep ourselves fed and warm while you're staggering around the alleyways at the back of the pub, but I do. I'm the _only _one in this house who does! If it wasn't for me, the three of us would have been on the streets years ago."

Tobias couldn't take her heightened emotions any longer – not with the migraine that was currently bubbling up in his frontal lobe. "Bullshit. Yeh and Sev would have been fine, yeh could've marched back in to that mansion of yours any time yeh wanted. I would've had to fend for myself."

Eileen gave a harsh laugh. "Doesn't that prove that you have no idea what I've gone through with those people? Even if they did welcome me back with open arms, I would've never left you! I loved you more than all the money and comfort the world could offer me!"

It should have been a touching sentiment, something on the way to a ceasefire… but there was something in it that niggled him.

"You loved me?"

"I hate you."

That, he was used to. He just wasn't used to hearing her use the word love in the past tense and it genuinely frightened him.

"I've had enough of this!" No matter how in the wrong he felt, Toby knew that if he rose to her level of anger, then perhaps she would soften to him like she so often had done in the past. "Bills and food could have waited, but if yeh want Parker to break in and throw yeh around and break my legs because of your damned stubbornness – then so be it!"

As he turned, the sound of crashing crockery radiated throughout the kitchen. For a moment he threw his hands above his head as he thought the most obvious target of her rage would have been the back of his skull; but he soon realised that she had merely thrown the leftovers from their dinner on the floor.

"Turning this whole thing around on me now, are we? _You've _had enough? The cheek of… sometimes I think I should have thrown you down the stairs a little harder, then perhaps I'd get some peace."

"Ah, just shut-up for once woman. I'll sleep on the couch." He turned away from her and made to stay out her way for the rest of the night, but something stopped him. That last bit of information… quite intrigued him. Toby turned back and the look on her face told him all he needed to know.

"Thrown me… down the stairs?"

"I didn't – it was a figure of speech – I didn't –" she was backing away toward the backdoor which, to him, was a clear indicator of guilt.

"Hrm… ain't a figure of speech I've heard before, throwing someone's husband down the stairs, landing him in hospital, lying about it and putting the blame all on him and all…"

"Toby…"

"_Poor gullible Toby…_" once again pure rage had got the better of him. He reached out and grabbed her shoulders with both hands. He shook her so much as he spoke that some of her tears were actually hitting his face. "I knew it, I _knew _it. All that pandering to my every need when I came home from the hospital was guilt! Or were yeh just waitin' for the next best moment to poison me, eh?! TO THINK I WAS WORRIED ABOUT PROTECTING YOU!"

"You frightened me," she stammered through the shaking "you make my magic unpredictable – uncontrollable – Toby –" Eileen's already delicate body was crumbling in his hands but he could not contain himself.

"You're going to break my shoulder!" she wept.

"Says the potential murderess! Jus' throw me against the ceiling like yeh did before! Come on! … COME ON THEN!"

But instead of being met with some undetectable, mystical force – he was hit in the face with a ball of spit. The unexpectedness of the act was enough to make him release her from his grip; he swept his sticky face with his palm and gazed at it for a while, the anger that had previously began to bubble and fizz inside his stomach finally reached tipping point. He bared his teeth wrathfully, took the damp hand and lunged it at her face. It collided with her nose and cheekbone with what felt like the force of a thousand boulders, considering her slight bone structure. Eileen's head ricocheted against the doorframe behind her and she fell to the floor in a silent, bleeding heap.

"Why'd yeh make me do these things, Ei?" Toby pleaded with her, towering over her body like a vulture debating whether to devour its prey now or wait until it became fully immobile. "Eh? Do yeh like me hating myself more than I hate the devil himself? I told yeh to hurt me when yeh had the chance."

Fighting against his own tears, he shoved out the same hand that he had momentarily struck her with to help her stand up from the floor. Usually she would have taken it, but this time she skirted away on the kitchen floor; when she managed to make it into the lounge she had regained enough strength to stand on her own. She was hyperventilating violently; blood was gushing from her nose and getting tangled into the ends of her hair.

"Where are yeh going?" Toby demanded as he observed her figure running from him and up the stairs. _Stupid question_, he thought right after he said it, _she's going to lock herself in the bathroom as she always does. _Toby wiped his eyes harshly and plonked down on the couch with his pounding head in his hands, feeling absolutely nauseous.

What he didn't expect was to see his wife emerge from upstairs so quickly after she had ventured up there. In her arms she was carrying an old brown carrycase that they kept shoved at the end of their wardrobe – clothes were dropping everywhere as she frantically dragged the large thing down the stairs and into the hallway.

"_Where are yeh going?_" he demanded now much more strongly, panic rising in his chest. Was she going to go to the police? Toby ran down the hallway and met her at the door, where he clamped onto her wrist with a pincer-like grip.

"Don't touch me." She demanded without looking at him. She waited for him to release his grip as if she had all the confidence in the world that he would.

"Not until yeh tell me where yer going!" Toby begged. "I don't blame yeh for wanting to get away for a while, but just let me know where yeh'll be…"

He winced when she turned to look at him with bloodshot eyes – they were filled with a sadness that he never seen before… her eyes had been sad for years now, but this was sadness on an almost ethereal level. When she opened her mouth to speak, he could see the blood from her nose had run its way down around her teeth. It was then that the tears he had kept locked within him for so many years started to flow.

"I'm finished with you," she whispered without anger, without love, without any emotion at all. "You've taken all of my strength. I can't fight you anymore. Deal with Parker and the rest of your problems on your own."

"Eileen… please…" he pleaded like a boy. "You know I love yeh, we always get through these things!"

She nodded, but did not reply. Instead she merely instructed once more: "let go of me, Toby."

"_No! _I _need _you, Ei, please..."

With what seemed like her final bought of strength, Eileen twisted her wrist and managed to finally wriggle out of his hold. One final glance into his eyes and she disappeared out of the door and into the foggy night. If he hadn't been so completely devastated, Tobias would have thought that her poised and mysterious departure from him suited her. If it wasn't for what he had done to her, she would have looked beautiful.

He tried to stumble after her but his vision was obscured by the dense fog and his migraine. He fell upon the front door so harshly that the pane struggled under his weight and split right up the centre, whereupon it smashed into hundreds of pieces; glass scattered itself from the entrance onto the street before him. He slid down the length of the door frame and remained there, sitting, for quite some time, not knowing what he should do, not knowing how he should do it. It must have all been just some horrible dream; he would wake up in a few seconds and his wife… the only person he had ever really loved… would be curled up right next to him in their bed, her face and body clean and without bruises.

As the minutes ticked by, however, it became apparent that this was not so; he barely managed to crawl onto the couch under the weight of his physical and emotional burdens. He decided that he would remain here either until Eileen came back, or he died.

Her or nothing. Eileen or a life not worth living. As it always had been.

Eileen stumbled down Spinners End – the small heels on her shoes getting stuck between the cobblestones, making her lose her balance as they did so. It was foggy and lightly drizzling, which was somewhat an advantage to her as it shielded her from any immediate strangers that may have been hanging around. She looked up into the sky and let the rain trickle down her nose; perhaps it was just strong enough to wash off the drying blood. It would also blend with her tears. She had no idea where she was going. She was, for the first time, homeless. And as dismal as that sounded – it was better than having _that _home.

She soon decided to ditch the bag that she was carrying behind her like some pitiable house elf…. Her clothes were probably worth five pounds at most and in her impassioned state she hadn't packed anything weather-suitable anyway. She found a large tin bin on the street corner and chucked the whole damned thing over the top of the rim. Now there was only her and the only possession her gut told her to grab in the heat of the moment… which was currently getting very wet in her crossed arms.

Eileen cursed and slipped her old textbook underneath her top. The ink mustn't smudge. There was vital information in its pages, she was sure. She needed to talk someone about it, but what person would listen to her? What world would welcome her back now? She hadn't felt like she could call herself Witch for decades now… and neither was she Muggle. She was a nothing, really… she couldn't even Apparate because she no longer had a wand. It had been broken just like her body had.

But the book continued to burn against her skin. Eileen knew she had to do something about it, and she knew the answer was not here, not in the Muggle world.

As if waiting for her mind to come to that conclusion, a sharp white light appeared in the corner of her eye. Within seconds, a triple-decker purple bus had pulled up out of nothingness and stopped within a meter of running her down. A chubby woman in a shabby bus conductors uniform appeared behind the sliding doors, her dirty blonde hair spilling out from her hat like a fallen bowl of spaghetti. She reached out and offered the more distraught looking woman a hand.

"Where to, my dear?" she queried.


End file.
